Now it’s stage-4 power cuts: Eskom crisis intensifies

September 10, 2022 Siyabonga Mtangana

Eskom will implement stage-4 load shedding from 10am on Saturday as the latest power supply crisis intensifies.

The state-owned electricity utility said that due to additional plant breakdowns overnight on Friday, which have worsened the current generation constraints, stage-4 load shedding will have to be implemented continuously until 5am on Monday.

“This is to replenish the emergency reserves in order to contain load shedding to lower stages next week,” Eskom said. On Friday, it had said it planned to cut the power at stage 3 throughout the weekend, meaning 3GW of capacity would not be available to consumers. At stage 4, the figure is 4GW of capacity.

Eskom said a generation unit at Kendal power station was forced offline overnight for emergency repairs, while a unit each at Majuba, Lethabo and Camden, as as at the Cahorra Bassa hydroelectric scheme in Mozambique, were shut down for critical planned maintenance.

Overnight, a generation unit each at Kusile and Tutuka were returned to service.