Eskom warns of possible stage two rolling blackouts

Eskom says it might implement stage two rolling blackouts at short notice from 4pm on Tuesday afternoon until midnight.

The power utility says this is due to a shortage of generation capacity.

Eskom says in a statement that, there are delays in returning a generation unit to service each at Arnot, Kusile and the Koeberg power stations, as well as the failure of a generation unit each at Medupi, Hendrina, Camden and two units at Majuba.

South Africans are urged to continue using electricity sparingly.

#POWERALERT1

Due to the shortage of generation capacity, Stage 2 loadshedding might be implemented at short
notice between 16:00 and 24:00 over the next three days pic.twitter.com/MF8L5BJaIy

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) August 2, 2022

Earlier last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said over the next 12 months Eskom will receive more funding to carry out critical maintenance.

The move is aimed at allowing the power utility to improve the performance of its power stations by recruiting skilled personnel.

In a special address to the nation, the President announced new measures to deal with the country’s energy crisis.

Ramaphosa gave Eskom 3 months to add new generation capacity to the grid on an urgent basis.

He said this will be achieved by buying energy from businesses, households and neighbouring countries.

“As part of addressing the shortage of megawatts, Eskom will now also purchase additional energy from existing private generators such as mines, paper mills, shopping centres and other private entities that have surplus power. A number of our neighbouring countries in Southern Africa, such as Botswana and Zambia, have more electricity capacity than they require.”

The President’s address is below:

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