Eskom has announced that for only the second time in history, the country will be subjected to stage-6 load shedding.
After warning earlier on Tuesday that there was a high risk of stage-6 rolling blackouts during the evening peak, due in large part to illegal strikes at Eskom’s power plants, the state-owned utility has now confirmed it will be required.
The last time the utility imposed stage-6 load shedding was for a short period on 9 December 2019.
Tuesday’s stage-6 load shedding will run for at least six hours, from 4pm to 10pm. It will be reduced to stage 4 until midnight, with stage 2 continuing overnight into Wednesday morning. Then, from 5am, it will be taken back up to stage 4. Stage-6 load shedding will again be implemented from 4pm to 10pm on Wednesday.
“This is due to the unlawful and unprotected labour action, which has caused widespread disruption to Eskom’s power plants,” the utility said in a statement.
And things could get even worse, with Eskom warning that “there is a high risk that the stage of load shedding may have to change at any time, depending on the state of the plant”.
‘Three of the 10 generation units that had tripped during the night have been returned to service. This, however, is still insufficient to stave off the implementation of stage-6 load shedding for this evening and tomorrow evening,” the utility said. — (c) 2022 NewsCentral Media