By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom says that its previously announced schedule has to fall away once again to make room for all-day stage 3 load shedding until further notice.
The group previously announced that stage 3 would be suspended at 05h00 on Friday (21 October). However, stage 3 load shedding will now continue to be implemented until further notice.
Based on the previous announcement, load shedding is expected to continue through to the end of the weekend. The stages at which this will happen are currently unknown.
“The delay in the return to service of a generating unit each at Duvha, Grootvlei, Kendal and two units at Tutuka power stations, as well as breakdowns of a unit each at Kusile and Komati power stations have necessitated this escalation of load shedding,” it said.
Currently, there are no units in service at Kusile Power Station due to breakdowns on three units, while one unit is out of service on planned maintenance.
Eskom will publish a further update as soon as any significant changes occur.
It noted that it currently has 5,146MW on planned maintenance, while another 17,408MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
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 the number of hospitals excluded from load shedding across the country has now increased from 37 to 72 since the last public announcement by Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, in September.
The Department of Health said more efforts are being made to implement the exemption of health facilities in the Northern Cape and North West as a matter of urgency, in line with the commitment made to ensure that no province is left behind.
According to the department’s updated list on Thursday, 17 hospitals are located in Gauteng, 15 in KwaZulu-Natal, 14 in Free State, 10 in Limpopo, seven in the Eastern Cape, and four each in Mpumalanga and the Western Cape.
In the meantime, only one hospital is exempted in the Northern Cape, while none of the hospitals in the North West is excluded from the load shedding.
However, the department said the team led by the Director General of Health, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, and Eskom Group Executive for Distribution, Monde Bala, is currently working closely with authorities in the two provinces to provide an alternative short-to-medium solution.