Stage 3 load shedding back on Wednesday, until further notice

Eskom says it will ramp up load shedding from stage 2 to stage 3 from 4pm on Wednesday afternoon.

Stage 3 load shedding

According to the embattled power utility, the rolling blackouts were increased to stage 3 due to the breakdown of two generating units and the delay in returning to service of three generating units from planned maintenance.

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Eskom said stage 3 power cuts will be implemented until further notice.

The parastatal said it will issue another update as soon as it becomes necessary.

Permanent stage 4 load shedding in 2023?

Meanwhile, some experts warned last year that the country’s electricity crisis could go as bad as a permanent average stage 4 load shedding and an occasional stage 10.

Following outgoing chief executive André de Ruyter’s warning that SA’s electricity woes would be dire in 2023, the power utility’s 2023 financial year outlook was grim: it was expected to suffer a net loss of more than R20 billion next year.

“We will have one Koeberg unit offline for the whole of next year, so that takes of 920MW off the grid. The outlook for the rest of next year is going to be very constrained,” De Ruyter said.

Energy expert Clyde Mallinson agreed with De Ruyter and said while it may fluctuate between other stages, less than four or higher, on average South Africans should brace themselves for a permanent average stage 4 in 2023.

“If we have the same demand profile in 2023 as we had this year [2022] and those figures remain the same with 18 000MW coal working and 22 000MW not working, it will be an average of stage 4, but we might even reach stage 10 in winter,” Mallinson said.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe. Additional reporting by Reitumetse Makwea

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