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Eskom management – or as we refer to them, the lords of darkness – held a virtual briefing on Friday to update South Africans on the current load shedding state. Unfortunately, Stage 6 is here to stay.
CEO Andre De Ruyter said outages currently total 13,609MW, with 2,709MW out due to unlawful labour actions.
To stave off further outages, De Ruyter said Eskom is “working to source additional diesel supplies from wherever it can”.
However, the current low reserves mean Eskom “has no choice but to move to stage 6 load shedding from 4pm this afternoon”
Meanwhile, Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer provided the load shedding schedule for the weekend – a necessary burden, as the power utility attempts to restore lost units, he says.
Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 12am to 7am
Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented from 7am to 12am
Live load shedding updates can be viewed here.
Meanwhile, government would like to “reassure South Africans that President Cyril Ramaphosa is leading the response to the current energy crisis”.
“Government understands the frustrations of people as they struggle to go about their daily lives”.
Furthermore, the challenges at Eskom are making it “difficult to conduct routine maintenance and other operational requirements, which has impacted the reliability of generation units”.
Now more than ever, government said it is vital to “work together to manage our consumption and use only what we really need”.
NOW READ: Load shedding stages explained: What you need to know
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