Eskom was scheduled to implement stage-2 load shedding from 10pm on Tuesday, 29 December, despite many industries being closed for the year-end holidays and the tightened lockdown restrictions.

The state-owned electricity monopoly said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that it would implement stage-2 rotational power cuts nationally until 5am on Wednesday. The same cycle of power cuts would be repeated on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, namely 10pm to 5am.

“The load shedding is necessary to preserve emergency generation reserves in preparation for higher demand expected during January as economic activity resumes,” Eskom said.

The company added that it had 9.7GW of supply on planned maintenance, while another 11.3GW of capacity was unavailable due to unplanned breakdowns.

“Eskom teams are working around the clock to return as many of these units to service as soon as possibe.”  — (c) 2020 NewsCentral Media