Weekend power supply to remain 'tight' - Eskom
State power utility Eskom said late on Friday that load shedding would not continue over the weekend, although electricity supply in the country would be "tight".
Eskom spokesperson Moses Mamba said that things would be "tight" over the weekend, but that it did not expect to have to do any loadshedding. "It's just Friday and Friday evening."
"Maybe Monday will be a bit tight too," he added, speaing in a telephone interview.
Eskom had begun implementing load shedding, after power imports from Mozambique were interrupted.
The shortages were exacerbated by an unspecified number of Eskom's generation units experiencing "unplanned outages", the company said in an emailed statement.
The reason for the interruption of imports from the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric plant was being investigated, and load shedding would continue on a rotational basis for the day.
Eskom was employing all its emergency resources, including the open-cycle gas turbine peaking power plants in the Western Cape, and was buying back power from large industrial customers.
However, this was not sufficient to address the shortfall.
"We call on all residential customers to switch off their geysers during the day especially during peak periods ... to reduce the electricity demand.
"Businesses are requested to turn off all non-essential lighting and office equipment during the day and overnight. All electricity consumers are encouraged to use electricity efficiently," said Eskom MD for system operations and planning Erica Johnson.
Load shedding schedules are available on the Eskom website .
Power cuts are becoming increasingly regular in South Africa, as Eskom races to increase generation capacity and boost its fragile power margins, in order to keep up with booming economic growth in the country.
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