Johannesburg - Due to technical problems at its main power station here, Eskom has been forced to commence load shedding in many parts of the country. The electricity giant on Thursday resumed load shedding after a short spell of load shedding during the peak period on Wednesday night, despite no electricity cuts during the festive season.

"We request all electricity consumers to use power efficiently. The summer is also a critical period for Eskom because we do routine maintenance of our plant," Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eskom, Jacob Maroga said.

He said load shedding would continue throughout the rest of the day and Friday. However, he said it should ease off by the weekend.

The load shedding will be implemented on a rotational basis nationally, but consumers will be updated on the supply situation.

The Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality sent a warning to residents on Thursday that load shedding would commence during periods between 8:30am and 10:30am, 10:30am and 13:00pm, 13:00pm and 15:30pm and 15:30am and 18:00pm.

Eskom advises South Africans to use the following tips during this time:

• It is safer for electricity users to turn off any electrical appliances that are frequently used when the power is cut as when the power is switched on again, it may do so with a momentary surge. This can damage electronically controlled appliances such as computers, television sets and DVD's.
• Keep one light switched on to alert you when the power returns;
• clearly mark on and off switches with a piece of masking tape;
• Remember to re-set time control clocks on cooking ovens, pool pumps, geysers and other automatically controlled appliances, unless they are battery operated.

Earlier this month, Eskom announced that it will invest R150 million to accelerating the implementation of its capacity expansion programme over the next five years in the upgrading of South Africa's power supply infrastructure. - BuaNews