[imagesource: Getty Images]

Siri, define good news.

I don’t have her answer on hand, but I guess good news comes in all shapes and forms.

Here, we celebrate the fact that after close to a month of rolling blackouts and load shedding, Eskom says it hopes to suspend load shedding from Monday (July 25).

Hurrah. BusinessTech has the lowdown:

Stage 2 load shedding will continue to be implemented from 16h00 until midnight on Thursday and Friday, before downgrading to stage 1 load shedding in the same time slots on Saturday and Sunday.

Barring any massive changes to energy generation, load shedding should be suspended entirely from Monday, however this is not yet confirmed.

“Load shedding has been confirmed until Saturday. During the weekend Eskom will communicate and confirm the outlook for the coming week,” it said.

“Barring any massive changes” – we’ve been here before.

All it takes is some wet coal or something going wrong at Medupi or Kusile and the EskomSePush notifications will reappear.

Apparently, we’re due to hear from President Ramaphosa “soon” regarding what interventions the government has planned to better tackle the power crisis.

Maybe don’t punish houses that use less electricity? Just a thought.

Also, I have little trust in the same government responsible for the shambles at Medupi Power Station, via The Daily Maverick:

The first concrete on the power station was poured in 2008. At the time, the project cost for only three units producing 2,400MW was estimated at R32-billion.

Image: Gallo Images / Rapport /Deon Raath

In 2007, the design was changed and the output almost doubled to 4,764MW. At that point, the cost estimate was R69-billion, which soon increased to R80-billion. The power station was finally commissioned in August last year, ie, 13 years after the start, and the total cost was independently estimated at R230-billion, or four times the original budget, with labour action on the site basically every year. Due to these cost escalations, the African Development Bank has said the power plant is unlikely to produce a positive financial return over the course of its lifetime.

Sorry, I’ll stop.

It’s a Friday and the good news is that come Monday, we should have a full 24 hours with the lights on.

We celebrate our wins where we can get them.

[sources:bustech&dailymav]