South African power utility, Eskom, does not expect to implement electricity blackouts until April 2016, its chief executive told parliament on Wednesday.

Embarking on a massive maintenance programme to keep its ageing coal-fired power plants running, Eskom was earlier this year forced to implement power cuts known locally as “load shedding”.

However, the utility has only cut power to certain areas for only two hours and 20 minutes in the past 87 days.

“We will continue to supply the country’s electricity and maintain our plant with minimal or no load shedding,” Brian Molefe said.