By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented at 05:00 to 16:00 from Tuesday, followed by Stage 5 load shedding at 16:00 to 05:00 from Wednesday, Eskom warned.
Over the course of this week, 14 generators are expected to return to service, helping to ease the pressure on the power system, the utility said.
This pattern will repeat daily until further notice.
Monday, 16 January
- Stage 6: until 00h00
Tuesday, 17 January
- Stage 6: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 4: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 5: 16h00 to 00h00
Wednesday, 18 January
- Stage 5: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 4: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 5: 16h00 to 00h00
[Wednesday pattern repeats until further notice]
“These changes will only be possible in their entirety if the units return to service as planned. Changes in the stages of load shedding can therefore occur at short notice due to the inherent unreliability of the coal power station fleet,” it said.
Eskom said that is was able to procure an additional 50 million litres of diesel on 6 January 2023, which is being utilised sparingly to manage the pumped storage dam levels and to limit the amount of load shedding during the day.
“Together, these emergency generators contribute 5.700MW of capacity,” it said.
However, 1,000MW of power from unit 1 of Koeberg remains offline for maintenance work, while 3,000MW is also offline due to critical failures at Medupi and Kusile. These will remain offline until mid 2023 and the end of 2024, respectively.
More recently, a generating unit each at Kendal, Majuba and Tutuka power stations returned to service today, Eskom said.
The group’s summer planned maintenance programme is also continuing and will taper off during the winter months, helping to make more capacity available to produce electricity, it said.
“There are currently 12 generators out on planned maintenance, representing 5,804MW of capacity. Breakdowns currently amount to 16,173MW of generating capacity,” it said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has been meeting with stakeholders in the energy sector over the extended period of stage 6 load shedding, seeking an end to the crisis.
South Africans at large have been venting their frustrations over the outages, with some attempting to mobilise and take the protest against load shedding and coming electricity price hikes to the streets.
South Africa is expected to suffer through extended periods of load shedding for the foreseeable future, with analysts and economists warning that there is no end in sight for the country’s power crisis.