South Africa could be plunged back into load shedding for the first time since July as the national electricity system is under “severe pressure”, state-owned electricity utility Eskom warned on Thursday.

“Eskom urges the public to reduce usage of electricity as the system is under pressure due to a number of generating unit breakdowns,” the company said in an e-mailed statement.

“While there is currently no load shedding anticipated, Eskom would like to request the public to reduce the usage of electricity. The power system is under severe pressure due to a number of generating unit breakdowns, which will necessitate an increased utilisation of emergency generation reserves.”

Total breakdowns amount to 14.9GW, while planned maintenance is 4.8GW of capacity. “Should there be any further breakdowns, Eskom might be forced to implement load shedding at short notice.

“While Eskom expects a number of generating units to return to service from breakdowns during the course of the next few days, we urge the public to reduce the usage and to continue using electricity sparingly to assist in avoiding load shedding.”