Photo by: Duane Daws
State-owned power utility Eskom has lifted its emergency declaration, invoked on Tuesday, stating that the power system was now stable. It warned, however, that the risk of another emergency declaration remained, as the system continued to be constrained.
“Understanding the impact on our key industrial customers and the South African economy, the emergency has been lifted. The system still remains critical and we will continue to heavily rely on the partnerships we have with our customers for the necessary voluntary load reduction to keep us going,” CEO Brian Dames said in a statement issued on Thursday night.
He added that the decision to declare an emergency on Tuesday was not taken lightly, but was a necessary one to make.
“While it was the first time we declared an emergency since 2008, we are in a much better position to manage the situation than we were back then. We now have the requisite skills, experience, knowledge, programmes and a robust risk and early warning protocol in place,” he noted.
Eskom indicated that, since the announcement of the emergency declaration, the utility had been working 24 hours a day to stabilise the system and meet the demands of its customers.
“While there has been a recovery, the system remains under enormous pressure, such that we could re-introduce the emergency should there be any material deterioration in the system. We, therefore, continue to depend on our partnerships with our stakeholders, particularly our industrial, commercial and residential customers to save electricity throughout the day,” it stated.