By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom says that all-day stage 4 load shedding will continue for the rest of the week until Sunday.
Eskom said that stage 4 load shedding will now continue to be implemented daily until 05h00 on Sunday.
Thereafter, stage 2 load shedding will be implemented until 16h00.
“This is necessary due to the need to recover emergency generation reserves, and the generation maintenance to be implemented in preparation for the coming week,” it said.
Breakdowns are currently at 14,953MW of generating capacity – below the group’s target of 15,000MW – while the generating capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 5,914MW.
In the last 12 hours, a generating unit at Arnot and Kriel power stations were taken offline for repairs.
Subsequently, a generating unit at Arnot, Duvha and Tutuka power stations was returned to service.
The delay in returning to service a generating unit at Kendal and Tutuka Power Stations is also contributing to the current capacity constraints.
Eskom said its load forecast for the evening peak demand is 27,639MW and appealed to the members of
the public to continue reducing demand by switching off non-essential appliances.
The escalation of load shedding this week breaks a period of relative stability for power supply where Eskom was able to keep outages at low levels, even suspending them on some days.
The group has also been quiet positive and optimistic about its overall performance, noting improvements, while also anticipating improved capacity heading into the latter months of the year and forward to 2024.