Johannesburg — South Africa’s Eskom has suspended planned power cuts, after returning to service overnight three generating units at coal-fired power stations, the state utility said on Friday.
More power cuts had been due on Friday in addition to three on consecutive days this week, but supply constraints had eased following the recovery of units at the Lethabo, Medupi and Kusile plants, the ailing utility said in a statement.
Unplanned breakdowns stand at 8,750 megawatts (MW), out of Eskom’s nominal capacity of 44,000 MW, compared to breakdowns of more than 11,900 MW at one stage on Tuesday.
Eskom’s struggles to power Africa’s most industrialised nation are one of the main obstacles to economic growth.
“Any significant deterioration in the generation performance may necessitate the implementation of loadshedding at short notice,” Eskom said, referring to the planned power cuts.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
