Eskom is ramping up its load-shedding from stage 2 to stage 4 from Wednesday at noon.
Eskom said “it regrets to announce” that stage 4 load shedding will be implemented from 12 pm today until 05:00 on Friday.
“Thereafter load-shedding will continue on Stage 2 till 05:00 Saturday morning,” said the power utility in a tweet.
“Over the past 24 hours, a unit each at Medupi, Kusile, and Matla power stations tripped while a unit each at Lethabo and Arnot power stations were forced to shut down,” said Eskom in a statement issued after the tweet.
“This constrained the power system further, requiring extensive use of emergency reserves and therefore, hampering the recovery of these reserves.”
The power utility said some generating units had been returned to service and it anticipated another two units to return later today.
“In addition, Koeberg Unit 1 is expected to return to service today and begin ramping up to full output within 48 hours,” said Eskom.
Total breakdowns amount to 14 957MW while planned maintenance was 5 301MW of capacity.
“We remind customers that load-shedding is implemented as a last resort to maintain the stability of the power system regardless of the stage of load-shedding,” said Eskom.
Stage 4 load shedding means that up to 4 000MW of capacity needs to be shed. Consumers can expect to be shed up to 12 times over a four-day period for two hours at a time, or 12 times over an eight-day period for four hours at a time.
However, the power utility said the implementation of Stage 4 load-shedding was no cause for alarm.
“Eskom would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the implementation of load-shedding, and requests the public to reduce the usage of electricity in order to help us through the constraints,” said the power utility.
“Eskom will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the power system.”
