Eskom released a statement confirming the possibility of loadshedding on Tuesday.
Loadshedding on the cards, Eskom says
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) confirmed that vote counting in the 2021 local government elections may conclude on Thursday and this important democratic process could be disrupted by rotational power outages.
“While no loadshedding has been implemented at this stage, Eskom requests the public to reduce the usage of electricity as the power system is severely constrained,” the power utility wrote.
During press updates hosted at the results operations centre, the IEC revealed that talks are ongoing with Eskom to find ways to limit interruptions to vote counting.
From what we understand, voting stations have been equipped with generators that are scheduled to kick in when loadshedding strikes.
As at 10:30 on Tuesday, the commission confirmed that 27% of the 64 502 results expected had been finalised.
“This status is in line with expected result capturing process. It is estimated that 90 % of results would be finalised by evening,” the IEC said.
Breakdowns continue to plague SA power capacity
Eskom warned that loadshedding could be implemented at short notice “should any further breakdowns occur, or should some of the generating units not return to service as expected.”
“Over the past 24 hours, Eskom teams returned a generation unit each at Camden, Kendal and Medupi power stations. Over the same period, two generation units; one at Arnot and another at Hendrina tripped while a unit each at Arnot and Lethabo were forced to shut down,” the utility revealed.
Total breakdowns amounted to more than 15 800MW while planned maintenance saw 4 036MW of capacity off the grid.
“We would like to remind customers and the public that loadshedding is implemented as a last resort to maintain the stability of the power system,” the national power supplier concluded.