It seems like just yesterday South Africans were boiling their kettles to enjoy a cup of coffee after a long day of work, only to be cut off by loadshedding.
But don’t pack away those candles and energy-saving torches just yet, as Eskom warns that power cuts might set to continue this year.
Even though loadshedding hasn’t been implemented since 19 November 2021, Eskom said that the road to sustainability will still be long and hard.
In a briefing on Thursday, Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said “We will do whatever we can to limit loadshedding, because we do understand the impact thereof on the country and on the lives of 60-million people,” but expressed that the power utility would not compromise on its planned maintenance programme.
“We will continue with the planned maintenance and it may contribute to the risk of loadshedding, but we have taken a decision and will stick to that decision because we need to invest in the future,” Oberholzer adds.
These sentiments were echoed in a statement, which said that major projects and outages undertaken this year will continue to exert pressure on the supply side, raising the risk of loadshedding in the short term.
“Despite our good performance in recent weeks, particularly over the festive season, surpassing that of the previous quarter as well as the same period in 2020, much still needs to be done for Eskom to achieve operational sustainability and ensure energy security for South Africa” Eskom’s Group Chief Executive, Andre de Ruyter expressed.
He went on to caution against increasing criminal activities on networks and assets, which result in increased risks of customer interruptions, public safety concerns and financial losses.
Eskom had deployed an additional 450 security guards to its key sites and was using advanced surveillance technologies to protect its assets from criminals.
Read the full statement here.
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Picture: Supplied