By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The state owned power utility Eskom says in a statement, it will ease load shedding once again this weekend due to lower anticipated demand.
Stage 4 load shedding will continue to be implemented until 16h00, before ramping up to stage 5 load shedding for the evening peak. This will be followed by a drop to stage 3, and stage 2 on Sunday.
Eskom said it will publish another update as soon as any significant changes occur.
Breakdowns are currently at 17,392MW of generating capacity while the generating capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 2,940MW.
Over the past 24 hours, a generating unit each at Grootvlei, Hendrina and Kriel power stations were returned to service.
In the same period, a generation unit each at Camden and two generating units at Arnot power stations were taken out of service due to breakdowns.
Furthermore, the delay in returning units to service at Arnot, Camden, Hendrina, Kendal, Matimba, Matla and Tutuka power stations continue to add to the current capacity constraints.
Outages are current tracking uncomfortably close 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.
Meanwhile three unions at Eskom have rejected what the power utility has characterised as its third and ‘final’ offer of a 5.25% wage increase.
This comes as Eskom, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and Solidarity concluded the third round of wage negotiations at the Centralised Bargaining Forum (CBF) on Tuesday.
Numsa and NUM had both initially wanted a 15% hike, among other demands, while Solidarity was aiming for 10.1%. Eskom initially offered a 3.75% hike, and increased it to 4.5% which was subsequently rejected by all three unions.
There is still one last round of negotiations left, which is expected to start in mid-June.
“Eskom is hopeful that it and the labour unions will find each other for the benefit of the company and in the best interests of the country,” the power utility said.