Eskom says it has had another major setback at its Medupi power station and will be implementing stage-1 load shedding from 9am to 12pm midday and thereafter revert to stage-2 load shedding until 11pm.

While last night Eskom acting group CEO Jabu Mabuza said the power utility would only implement stage-1 rotational load shedding as a result of a shortage capacity due to a number of generating units still out of services due to breakdowns, Eskom said overnight it lost additional capacity from the Medupi power station.

“Late last night, we lost Medupi 3, 4 and 5 due to coal- and ash-handling issues. This is in addition to the conveyor belt that failed on Saturday at the power station.

“This means that the power system has deteriorated further creating an additional shortage of about generation capacity of 1 500MW,” said Eskom in a statement on Friday morning.

It said as a result, it would regrettably maintain stage-2 load shedding for the greater part of Friday.

In order to lessen the disruption on matrics who are writing their Visual Art and Design practical exam today, Eskom said it would implement stage-1 load shedding from 9am until 12pm and thereafter revert to stage-2 load shedding until 11pm.

“We understand the negative impact this will have on our customers, in particular our matriculants who are writing exams this morning… We apologise unreservedly to our customers and South Africans for the short notification.” — SANews