Load shedding back until at least Monday

Eskom will implement stage-2 load shedding from 9pm on Saturday until 5am on Monday, the state-owned electricity utility said on Twitter.

“Eskom regrets to announce that due to a shortage of generation capacity, load shedding will be implemented starting at 9pm tonight until 5am on Monday.

“The load shedding has been caused by breakdowns, numerous trips at various power stations, as well as delays in returning units to service. This has required us to rely heavily on emergency generation reserves, which are now at very low levels.

“To ensure adequate reserves for the week ahead, it is necessary to preserve the remaining emergency reserves and to replenish as much as possible before Monday.”

Eskom said it has suffered “multiple breakdowns and trips” in recent days, including at the Tutuka, Hendrina, Kusile, Arnot and Kendal power stations.

“While some of these units have already returned to service, this has required us to utilise extensive emergency generation reserves to supplement capacity during the week. These now need to be replenished in order to increase available capacity for the week ahead.”

Eskom said total breakdowns currently amount to 15.6GW, while planned maintenance is at 5GW of capacity. — (c) 2021 NewsCentral Media