State-owned power utility Eskom reported that peak demand last week was met with sufficient capacity and that, while the power utility continued to make progress with its programme of planned maintenance, the system remained tight.

Electricity demand is expected to peak on Tuesday at 31 367 MW, decreasing to 31 269 MW and 31 320 MW on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Current planned maintenance resulted in 4 286 MW being unavailable for use, down from 4 661 MW last week, and unplanned outages reduced capacity by a further 5 497 MW, an increase of over 1 000 MW since last week.

Meanwhile, Public Enterprise Minister Malusi Gigaba, who rolled out the 2012 plan of the 49m campaign in eMalahleni on Sunday, said that demand for electricity was increasing.

The 49m campaign was launched last year with the aim of encouraging South Africans to live energy efficient lives by saving electricity.

“We need to save about 3 000 MW electricity in the reserves to mitigate for any expedites. To do that we need to start implementing various measures that are going to address both the demand and the supply of electricity,” the Minster said.