Expect load shedding from tonight

South Africans can expect Stage 2 loadshedding from Monday night until Wednesday morning, due to “multiple generating unit failures over the past 24 hours”, according to Eskom.

Loadshedding will be implemented from 21:00 on Monday to 05:00 on Tuesday, and again from 21:00 on Tuesday night until 05:00 on Wednesday.

Eskom says the power cuts are necessary to replenish its emergency generation reserves, which it has used “significantly” since the weekend.

“Loadshedding might be required at short notice should there be any further significant breakdowns. Since this morning, a unit each at the Matla, Kendal, Matimba, Kusile and Grootvlei power stations tripped, while a unit each at Arnot and Hendrina power stations were forced shut down. This, in addition to other units that had tripped during the weekend, reduced available generation capacity, forcing Eskom to rely heavily on emergency generation reserves to keep the lights on,” the power utility said.

Total breakdowns amount to 14 508MW while planned maintenance is 6 307MW of capacity as it continues with reliability maintenance.