Load shedding now expected all weekend, too

Eskom’s rolling power cuts will drag on until at least next Monday – meaning almost a full week of load shedding, after the utility started cutting the power at 5pm this past Monday.

In a media briefing on Wednesday morning, the state-owned company said stage-4 load shedding will continue until Friday morning. If all goes well, it will then move the country to stage 2 until Monday morning.

In the briefing, which was led by chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer, the utility said problems at its generating plants has meant 20.8GW (planned and unplanned) is unavailable for supply.

Open-cycle gas turbines, which burn diesel to keep the lights are, are supporting the system until generating units can be restored. The cost of diesel is expected to spiral higher in the coming months as oil prices surge on the back of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

At the time of the briefing, Eskom said at least four units had been returned successfully to service and it was hoping for three more units to return today and seven more generational units to be returned by the weekend.  – © NewsCentral Media