Eskom will implement stage-3 load shedding from 2pm on Friday following the loss of 2.7GW of generation capacity.

Several generation units went offline, including Kusile unit 2, two days after it was reintroduced to the grid on Wednesday.

Two other coal-fired units were taken offline due to coal operations becoming “suboptimal” following “adverse weather” in the area, said Eskom.

The power cuts are expected to persist throughout the weekend and end on Monday at 5am.

“The constrained capacity resulted in the increased reliance on emergency reserves during this week, which makes it necessary to focus on replenishing these critical resources during the weekend in preparation for the next business week,” Eskom said in a statement on Friday.

Eskom said it will deploy “extra engineering resources” to speed up the repair process, with 6.2GW expected to be back online in time to serve Monday evening’s expected peak demand.

“The events that triggered stage-3 load shedding occurred while the system was already under strain,” said Eskom. Eskom’s summer outlook, published 26 August 2024, remains unchanged.

‘Perfect storm’

Eskom managed to keep the lights on consistently for 10 months until load shedding reared its ugly head again at the end of January. Energy minister Kgosientsho Ramakgopa said at the time that a “perfect storm” of factors resulted in load shedding’s return.

“We ran our gas turbines and we exhausted our reserves,” the minister said at the time.

Despite his reassurances that the end of load shedding was “within touching distance”, the country was plunged into stage-6 power cuts less than a month later, on 23 February, when 10 generating units were lost over night.

Read: Return of load shedding blamed on ‘perfect storm’

“We have had some delays in returning units that previously tripped back to the grid, as well as to the return of three units that have been on longer-term outage that will bring back 2.5GW to the grid, which will happen in the coming weeks,” said Bheki Nxumalo, group executive for generation at Eskom, said on Friday. — (c) 2025 NewsCentral Media

Get breaking news from TechCentral on WhatsApp. Sign up here.