Eskom suspends power cuts, for now
Eskom has suspended load shedding from 11:30 am until 4 pm on Monday.
The embattled power utility’s spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the suspension of rolling blackouts is a result of improvement generation in the electricity generation system.
“This includes the full recovery in emergency generation reserves. Eskom will publish another update this afternoon,” Mokwena said.
Lack of maintenance
Last week, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said Eskom was losing hundreds of thousands of megawatts of electricity due to a lack of consistent maintenance at some of its power stations.
The minister said the historical lack of maintenance of electricity infrastructure resulted in the underperformance of some power stations which could be adding capacity to the electricity grid.
“Significant amount of opportunity is giving us an EAF (Energy Availability Factor) of 40% and we know we can do significantly better because those units are big units and 40% really is an injustice on what the team is capable of achieving.”
Ramokgopa also said the historical backlog was having a serious impact on the grid.
“Part of the underperformance we are seeing is a function of historic reasons. Historic in this instance I’m referring to Eskom’s inability to invest in the maintenance.”
Brics load shedding
Ramokgopa said Johannesburg will get no special treatment from Eskom when it hosts the 15th Brics Summit this week.
“Johannesburg will be expected if there is load shedding on the day to make its contribution to ensuring we protect the grid. How they allocate, they will make that determination.
“So, if you happen not to see load shedding on the day it might be two things. We don’t have load shedding across Eskom, or it could be they are not on schedule to be load shed,” Ramokgopa said.
In other news – Huge blow for DJ Zinhle as her song removed from streaming platforms
Popular South African DJ, producer, media personality, and businesswoman, DJ Zinhle has expressed displeasure after her latest song Thula was removed from Apple Music and iTunes.
The song, which features songstress Cici, was released in July this year. Taking to Twitter at the weekend, the businesswoman said she does not why the song was taken off some streaming platforms. She, however, said that she and her team are trying to find a solution and directed her fans to other streaming platforms. Read More
