Eskom to revert to stage-3 load shedding

The crippling blackouts currently tearing at South Africa’s economy are set to continue for the foreseeable future, though a reduction in their intensity is expected from Thursday morning.

The current bout of load shedding started a month ago, making this the longest period of rolling blackouts to hit the country since they first began in 2008.

Eskom said in a statement on Wednesday that it will continue to implement load shedding at stage 4 until 5am on Thursday, after which it will reduce this to stage 3, meaning 3GW of capacity is unavailable.

Eskom blamed the usual shortage of generation capacity for the ongoing planned power cuts. It also said it needs to replenish its emergency reserves, including its diesel-burning open-cycle gas turbines.

Read: New Eskom board announced – Mteto Nyati among the names

The state-owned utility promised a further update on Friday afternoon, “or as soon as there are any significant changes”.  — (c) 2022 NewsCentral Media

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