Eskom will again implement load shedding countrywide on Tuesday, with the rolling blackouts set to continue until Friday, the first day of the Easter long weekend.
The struggling state-owned power utility said in a statement that it will cut the power on a stage-2 rotational basis starting at 5pm on Tuesday and running to 5am on Friday. The cycle will repeat itself each night.
This comes after the utility imposed load shedding on Monday evening after losing five generating units from its fleet. It was the first time Eskom had been forced to introduce load shedding in 29 days.
“The constrained supply situation will persist throughout the week, with the possibility that more load shedding is likely to be implemented should the generation capacity deteriorate further,” Eskom said.
Unit 5 of Medupi returned to service during the night but three generating units at the Camden power station tripped overnight, “contributing to the current shortage of capacity”.
“We are managing the emergency generation reserves to limit the stage of load shedding,” Eskom said. “The overnight load shedding will be used to replenish the dam level at the pump storage power stations in preparation for the remainder of the week.”
Unplanned outages currently sit at 14.5GW of capacity, with planned outages at 4.8GW. – © 2022 NewsCentral Media