Eskom To Implement Stage 2 Load Shedding Until Friday, Warns Of More Power Cuts

Eskom will implement Stage 2 load shedding from 5 pm on Wednesday through to 11 pm on Friday night, the state owned power utility said.

However, if generating capacity continues to decline, it may be forced to implement power cuts at short notice even earlier on Wednesday, Eskom said.

The latest round of power cuts are due to “loss of generation capacity and to replenish emergency generation reserves,” Eskom said.

The utility has also warned that the power cuts may extend into the weekend.

“There is a high probability that load shedding may continue to be implemented throughout the weekend, depending on plants returning to service from planned maintenance, as well as the levels of the emergency generation reserves,” the company said.

The utility said it had been forced to make extensive use of emergency generation reserves over the past week due to continued poor performance at its Kusile, Tutuka and Duvha power stations as well as breakdowns and delays in returning other units to service.

This, in turn, has depleted the emergency reserves significantly, Eskom said.

“We currently have 6 212MW on planned maintenance, while another 11 217MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns and delays. This has led to our inability to supply the increasing demand.”

The utility has appealed to the public to use electricity sparingly while the power grid remains unstable.

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