South Africa’s Eskom Suspends Power Cuts Earlier Than Planned

(Bloomberg) --

South Africa’s state-owned electricity utility will suspend power cuts by noon on Saturday, almost 48 hours earlier than it had initially indicated.

The power system has recovered to a point where rotational blackouts can be stopped after generation units at Matla, Majuba, Grootvlei and Kendal power stations as well as the non-commercial Kusile unit have returned to service, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. said in a statement on Saturday. A further unit each at Matimba and Arnot power stations are expected to return to service during the day.

Eskom started cutting 2,000 megawatts from the national grid on May 3, saying it will have to persist until 5 a.m. on May 9. The cuts were reduced to 1,000 megawatts Friday evening. The utility is struggling to generate enough power to meet demand with aging infrastructure that regularly breaks down. 

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