Staff Reporter.
Eskom has announced that load shedding will be extended to the weekend, at a reduced stage.
The group said that load shedding will be cut to stage 1 from Wednesday 05h00, and will run until 05h00 on Saturday.
Stage 2 load shedding was implemented on Wednesday 10 March 2021.
Eskom said that while it has returned four generation units at the Kusile, Grootvlei, Kriel and Matla power stations, the grid remains severely constrained.
“The (return) has not been sufficient to suspend load shedding at this point,” it said, adding that further generation capacity has been lost at the Medupi, Arnot and Komati power stations.
“Additionally, the return to service of four other units has been delayed, prolonging the need to continue implementing load shedding. Eskom is working hard to return the units back to service as soon as possible.”
Eskom on Monday warned that load shedding is likely to be a feature in South Africa until grid stability improves, which will only happen closer to September 2021 after planned maintenance programmes are completed.
The power utility warned that, without additional capacity added to the grid, there is likely to be a 4,000MW to 6,000MW shortfall over the next five years, as power stations reach their end of life.
For those living in the major metros, they can check to see when they will be affected:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town (PDF)
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
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 National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has called on stakeholders to attend a public consultation workshop on the Strategic Planning Programme being rolled out by the Electricity Division.
“It was determined that a public consultation workshop would be a transparent and efficient mechanism to elicit a diverse range of responses to the strategic challenges facing the division going forward,” NERSA said on Tuesday.
On 10 March 2021, the Energy Regulator published a discussion paper to guide inputs to the Electricity Division Strategic Planning.
The document is available on the NERSA website at www.nersa.org.za under ‘Consultation>Notices> Electricity.’ The closing date for written comments is 20 March 2021.
The Electricity Division will be engaging with external stakeholders to elicit their responses to a series of strategic questions on virtual platforms on 24 – 26 March 2021.
NERSA is a regulatory authority established as a juristic person in terms of section 3 of the National Energy Regulator Act, 2004 (Act No. 40 of 2004).
NERSA’s mandate is to regulate the electricity, piped-gas and petroleum pipelines industries in terms of the Electricity Regulation Act, 2006 (Act No. 4 of 2006), Gas Act, 2001 (Act No. 48 of 2001) and Petroleum Pipelines Act, 2003 (Act No. 60 of 2003).
Members of the public and stakeholders who wish to attend or present their views at the public workshop must submit their request to publichearings@nersa.org.za by 3:30pm on 19 March 2021 for the attention of Mr Eleazer Dlamini.
For more information or queries on the above, stakeholders can contact Mr Dlamini at 012 401 4035.