By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom has announced that Stage 6 load shedding will be implemented from 05:00 on Tuesday until further notice.
Spokesperson Daphne Mokwena says a further two units at Lethabo and Matla power stations will need to be shutdown for urgent repairs.
“Breakdowns are currently at 16 210MW of generating capacity while the capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 5 894MW.
“Since yesterday (Sunday), a generating unit each at Kriel and Medupi power stations was taken offline for repairs. In the same period a generating unit at Arnot, Kendal, Kriel and Lethabo power stations were returned to service.”
Mokwena says the delay in returning to service a generating unit each at Hendrina and Tutuka power stations is also contributing to the current capacity constraints.
Eskom will publish another update should any significant changes occur.
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.
Meanwhile today marks almost a full year since permanent load shedding came into effect – and the last time the country saw a full week without load shedding.
This is according to the latest Power Blackout Statistics (PBS) compiled by independent energy analyst Pieter Jordaan.
According to Jordaan, week 35 of 2022 – ending 4 September 2022 – was the last time South Africa experienced a full week without any load shedding.
Tuesday, 6 September 2022, was the start of what would eventually become a record string of daily blackouts.
Over the last 365 days, South Africa has experienced a total of 360 days of load shedding, with the only breaks seen in October 2022 and March 2023.
Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa noted this weekend that load shedding has pushed to higher stages – stage 4 and stage 5 – due to power utility Eskom having to ramp up its planned maintenance.
The planned maintenance schedule is often truncated during winter to help the utility meet higher demand, but has to return to normal during summer to ensure that units don’t break down.
Planned maintenance has increased from around 3,000MW in winter to around 6,000MW currently, accounting for the equivalent of three stages of load shedding.