South Africa's Eskom to reduce power cuts on Friday

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 3- South African state power utility Eskom said on Thursday it would reduce power cuts on Friday from 8 a.m local time due to lower demand and much improved weather. On Wednesday Eskom ramped up power cuts to “stage 4” because of exceptionally high demand and breakdowns at its coal-fired power stations, but from 0600 GMT until 2000 GMT on Friday it…

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 3 (Reuters) – South African state power

utility Eskom said on Thursday it would reduce power cuts on

Friday from 8 a.m local time (0600 GMT) due to lower demand and

much improved weather.

On Wednesday Eskom ramped up power cuts to “stage 4” becauseof exceptionally high demand and breakdowns at its coal-firedpower stations, but from 0600 GMT until 2000 GMT on Friday itwill reduce them to “stage 3,” which requires up to 3,000megawatts to be shed from the grid.

“In order to replenish the emergency generation reserves,load-shedding will then continue into the weekend,” Eskom saidin a statement, adding that the system remains unreliable andvulnerable.(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Susan Fenton)