By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom says that load shedding will be gradually reduced to stage 3 over the next few days.
Stage 5 load shedding will be reduced to stage 4 starting from 05h00 on Thursday (15 December), which will continue until Sunday (18 December).
Thereafter, load shedding will be reduced to stage 3, it said.
Wednesday, 14 December
- Stage 5: until 00h00
Thursday, 15 December
- Stage 5: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 4: 05h00 to 00h00
Friday, 16 December
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 00h00
Saturday, 17 December
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 00h00
Sunday, 18 December
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 3: 05h00 until further notice
“Since Tuesday morning, a unit each at Camden, Kriel, Majuba, Matla and Duvha power stations were taken offline for repairs and planned maintenance. In addition, the delay in returning to service a generating unit each at Arnot, Duvha and Hendrina power stations has contributed to the capacity constraints.
A generating unit each at Grootvlei, Camden, Kriel, Majuba power stations returned to service.
The group currently has 6,618MW on planned maintenance, while another 15,996MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
Eskom group CEO Andre de Ruyter announced his resignation from the group on Wednesday evening, following weeks of political and social pressure due to elevated levels of load shedding.
He will remain on for three more months and make his exit on 31 March 2023.
Meanwhile a unit at Eskom’s Matla power station in Mpumalanga suffered a fire incident on Wednesday afternoon as a result of a fuel oil leak.
According to sources at the power utility, spilled fuel oil ignited and started a fire at the power station’s unit 6 boiler, resulting in damage to electrical cables at the 3 600MW plant.
The fuel oil was isolated and a fire team extinguished the fire.
There appeared to be no structural damage, although the extent of the damage and the scope of work are still to be assessed.