More stage-6 load shedding on the cards for this week

South Africa’s worst-ever bout of load shedding will drag into the new work week, with stage-6 cuts expected again on Monday and stage-5 cuts on Tuesday.

Stage 6 is the highest level of load shedding Eskom has ever imposed. Before last week, the country had only one before been subjected to stage-6 cuts — in December 2019.

After implementing stage-4 power cuts for most of the weekend, Eskom on Sunday warned that load shedding will likely continue for several weeks as the state-owned electricity utility tries to recover from damaging illegal strike action at its fleet of coal-fired power stations.

“Depending on several possibilities – including the workforce fully returning to work to conduct much needed repairs to equipment – it is anticipated that load shedding will gradually be lowered to stage 2 by the weekend,” the company said in a statement. “Eskom will communicate and implement any changes as may be necessary.”

Eskom’s current forecast shows power cuts being implemented in the coming days:

On Sunday:

• Stage 4: until midnight

On Monday:

• Stage 2: midnight to 5am
• Stage 4: 5am to 4pm
• Stage 6: 4pm to 10pm
• Stage 4: 10pm to midnight

On Tuesday:

• Stage 2: midnight to 5am
• Stage 4: 5am to 4pm
• Stage 5: 4pm to 10pm
• Stage 4: 10pm to midnight

Eskom had a relatively high 18.3GW of capacity unavailable due to breakdowns as of Sunday afternoon. A further 3.4GW was out for planned maintenance.  – © 2022 NewsCentral Media