Eskom warned on Tuesday that if there is any further deterioration to an electricity system that is already under “severe pressure”, load shedding will follow, possibly as early as 5pm.
The state-owned power utility said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that there is a high probability of evening load shedding from 5pm to 10pm.
“A shortage of generation capacity, caused by breakdowns in generation units and delays in others returning to service, has resulted in supply constraints,” Eskom said.
“While no load shedding is anticipated at this point, Eskom could be forced to implement stage-1 or, if necessary, stage-2 load shedding at short notice should any further breakdowns occur.”
The outlook for the remainder of the week is better as Eskom teams are “working tirelessly to return more generators to service”.
Breakdowns are currently total 14.9GW of capacity, while another 2.2GW is unavailable due to planned maintenance. — (c) 2021 NewsCentral Media