Eskom implements load shedding

Eskom will be implementing Stage 2 load shedding between 22:00 and 05:00 on Wednesday night (tonight) and on Thursday night.

The power utility says this is necessary “to recover and preserve the emergency generation reserves that have been utilised to support the system during the week following the earlier than planned shutdown of Koeberg Unit 1 and other units whose return to service has been delayed.”

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Koeberg supplies just over 1 800 megawatts (MW) in baseload power generation, which halved when the unit was taken offline.

“We currently have 6 672MW on planned maintenance, while another 12 073MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned maintenance. Eskom teams are working around the clock to return as many of these units to service as soon as possible,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Eskom said the system remains vulnerable and unpredictable and urged the public to reduce electricity consumption to minimise load shedding.

“…Eskom continues to implement reliability maintenance during this period, and thus the system will continue to be constrained and the risk of load shedding remains elevated. At the moment the equivalent of two large power stations is out for planned maintenance, adding pressure to the system.”