By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom has announced that Stage 5 load shedding will be implemented from 16:00 on Sunday until 05:00 on Monday.
Thereafter, stage 4 load shedding will be implemented from 05h00 until 16h00, followed by stage 5 from 16h00 until 05h00 on Tuesday.
This pattern will be repeated daily until further notice, Eskom said.
Breakdowns are currently at 18,144MW of generating capacity while the generating capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 3,427MW.
Over the past 24 hours, a generating unit each at Arnot, Camden, Kendal and Palmiet power stations were returned to service.
In the same period, a generation unit each at Matla and Tutuka power stations were taken out of service due to breakdowns.
Furthermore, the delay in returning to service a unit at Arnot, Hendrina, Kendal, Kriel, Lethabo, Matimba, Tutuka and two generating units at Camden power stations continue to add to the current capacity constraints.
Outages are current tracking at to the ‘worse-case scenario’ in Eskom’s latest winter outlook, where it said it will have to keep unplanned outages below 18,000MW to avoid stage 8 load shedding.
The group needs to keep these outages contained and below 15,000MW to keep the ‘best-case’ scenario of stage 3 to stage 5 load shedding a reality.
It must also be noted that eThekwini has also returned to full load shedding from 25 May 2023, which means regions that were previously exempt from load shedding up to stage 4 will now see blackouts hit from stage 1.
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.