Stage-2 load shedding will return on Tuesday, Eskom said. The power cuts will start at 4pm and continue through the night, with a possibility that they’ll continue for the rest of the week.
Eskom has blamed further breakdowns of generating units for the latest outages. Units at Kriel, Arnot, Majuba and Tutuka power stations failed in the past 24 hours.
There have also been delays in returning units to service at Duvha and Tutuka.
“This load shedding will also assist to replenish the emergency generation reserves, which have been utilised extensively over the past three weeks to avoid load shedding during the day,” Eskom said.
“During this period a generation unit each at Kusile and Arnot returned to service. This, however, is not sufficient to eliminate load shedding for the rest of the week. The generation supply constraints will persist throughout the high winter demand period, which increases the likelihood of further load shedding.”
Breakdowns currently total 15.4GW of capacity, while another 1.6GW is unavailable due to planned maintenance. “Some generation units are expected to return to service starting this evening, which would help ease the strain.” — © 2021 NewsCentral Media