The current debilitating bout of crippling load shedding will end at 10pm on Friday evening, Eskom said, even as the utility warned that the systems remains “severely constrained”.

Eskom said it expects to return nine generating units over the weekend – these are a unit at Hendrina and two units each at Arnot, Duvha, Majuba and Tutuka power stations. Low weekend demand will help the utility replenish its emergency system reserves.

“Eskom would like to again caution that even with the return to service of these units, the power system remains severely constrained and volatile. During next week, we anticipate to continue relying on the use of emergency reserves to meet demand,” it said.

On Thursday, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter revealed that the state-owned utility has spent more than R620-million on diesel for its open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) so far this month in an effort to reduce the impact of load shedding. The utility burned through 48.5 million litres of diesel in the first three weeks of April.

De Ruyter also said Eskom is hopeful there won’t be any rolling power cuts next week, though Monday could prove “tight”.

South Africa moved from stage-4 to stage-3 load shedding at 10pm on Wednesday evening after Eskom brought some generating units back online. The utility moved to stage-2 load shedding from 10pm on Thursday.