Back to black: Stage 6 load shedding returns

After a two-day break, South Africans are already back to stage 6 load shedding.

Eskom confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that in order to replenish emergency reserves, stage 4 load shedding would only continue until 8pm, after which the country will move to stage 6 until 5am on Wednesday.

ALSO READ: City Power denies it imposed stage 8 load shedding on residents

“The pattern of implementing stage 4 from 5am until 8pm and stage 6 from 8pm until 5am will be repeated daily until Saturday morning,” Eskom posted on X.

“Unplanned outages increased by 401 MW to 15 825MW, whilst planned maintenance increased by 555MW to 6 835MW of generation capacity. 1300 MW of generation capacity was returned to service in the last 24 hours.”

ALSO READ: ‘EskomSePush’s load shedding time slots not correct’: City Power clarifies two-hour interval confusion

Eskom said it would closely monitor the power system and communicate changes to load sheading should they occur.

‘We were never at stage 8’

Earlier in the day, City Power denied reports that it incorrectly implremented stage 8 load shedding instead of stage 6 over the weekend.

This after several residents, including energy analyst Chris Yelland, took to X over the weekend to complain about the number of hours they were left without electricity.

They said on Saturday they had between 10 and 11 hours of load shedding, which is more than what should be experienced during stage 6.

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa laid the blame squarely at City Power, but the regional power utility’s spokesperson Isaac Mangena denied responsibility.

“All municipalities and Eskom are guided by Nersa’s code of practice, NRS 048-09, when implementing load shedding. This is for equitable distribution of the burden of rotational power supply cuts in order to collectively save the national grid from potentially collapsing,” Mangena said.