By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Power utility Eskom says that it will implement stage 6 load shedding on Monday, with load shedding expected to take place at various levels for “the next few weeks”.
“As the generation capacity shortages persist over the next few weeks, load shedding will continue to be implemented at various stages. Eskom cautions the public that it will still take a few weeks for the power generation system to fully recover to pre-strike levels,” it said.
Depending on several possibilities – including the workforce fully returning to work to conduct much-needed repairs to equipment – it is anticipated that load shedding will gradually be lowered to stage 2 by next weekend, it said.
Eskom said it will communicate and implement any changes as may be necessary.
The latest schedule is as follows:
Sunday (3 July)
Stage 4 load shedding until 00h00
Monday (4 July)
Stage 2 load shedding from 00h00 to 05h00
Stage 4 load shedding from 05h00 to 16h00
Stage 6 load shedding from 16h00 to 22h00
Stage 4 load shedding from 22h00 to 00h00
Tuesday (5 July)
Stage 2 load shedding from 00h00 to 05h00
Stage 4 load shedding from 05h00 to 16h00
Stage 5 load shedding from 16h00 to 22h00
Stage 4 load shedding from 22h00 to 00h00
Eskom said it currently has 3,384MW on planned maintenance, while another 18,319MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
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 labour unions are consulting with workers after Eskom tabled a revised 7% wage offer and agreed to some of the workers’ demands on Saturday.
National Union of Mineworkers (Num) spokesperson Livhuwani Mamburu said the revised offer was presented to unions on Saturday.
“They have offered 7% across the board. They have also reversed last year’s decision to change the conditions of employment.
A joint Num and National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) shop stewards’ meeting will be held on Tuesday where they would be revealing whether the offer has been accepted or not.
Mamburu said he was “positive” that the new offer might bring an end to the strike.
Statistics tracking performance at Eskom showed that the worst performers were out between 46% and 68% of the time.
Among the worst performers was Kusile, where unit 1 was out for 14 days from September 2021. After being repaired, however, it remained unavailable for 68% of the next nine months.
Tutuka, in Standerton, had two units responsible for 1,170mw out for an average of 57.4% of the time following repairs in November 2020 and March 2021, read the report.