South Africa’s power system was expected to be “extremely tight” over Monday’s evening peak owing to the cold weather, with demand forecast at 33 675 MW, while available capacity – including open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) – would be only 33 600 MW, State-owned power utility Eskom said in its biweekly status bulletin.

Current planned maintenance for Monday stood at 3 700 MW, while unplanned outages were 5 900 MW.

Eskom said there would be no cushioning should anything unexpected occur, urging customers to reduce their electricity use, especially during the early evening from 17:30 to 18:30.

This situation was expected to improve later in the week as weather conditions improved.

Peak demand for the rest of the week was forecast at 33 489 MW on Tuesday with available capacity of 33 645 MW and 30 207 MW on Wednesday to be met by available capacity of 33 645 MW.

The capacity to meet Thursday’s peak demand stood at 33 578 MW, with demand forecast at 33 200 MW, while Friday’s peak demand was forecast at 31 234 MW, to be met by available capacity of 33 578 MW.

Saturday and Sunday would have each have available capacity of 33 768 MW, with demand forecast at 31 414 MW and 31 773 MW respectively.

The available capacity for each of the days included the use of OCGTs.