Load shedding returns – stage 2 until Wednesday

Load shedding has struck again. Eskom will cut the power on a rolling basis across South Africa at stage 2 from 5pm on Monday afternoon.

The utility expects the load shedding to continue until Wednesday at 5am, at the earliest.

Eskom has blamed “multiple generating unit failures” in the past 24 hours for the latest round of blackouts. “This load shedding is required in order for Eskom to replenish the emergency generation reserves, which have been utilised significantly since the past weekend,” it said.

“Load shedding might be required at short notice should there be any further significant breakdowns.”

Since Monday 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 to 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.”

Total breakdowns amount to 14.5GW while planned maintenance is 6.3GW.  – © 2022 NewsCentral Media

• This article was updated to reflect a change in the start of the power cuts from 9pm to 5pm on Monday after a unit at Medupi went offline