Load shedding: SA to move to Stage 3 in the evenings

Eskom has announced that it is increasing load shedding to Stage 3 from 4pm on Tuesday until 5am on Wednesday. Thereafter, Stage 2 load shedding will run until 4pm on Wednesday.

This pattern of Stage 2 from 5am until 4pm, and Stage 3 from 4pm until 5am, will continue until further notice.

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This because three generating units went down and there was a delay in the return to action of another three units that are not working, though it was only a day ago that the utility said it planned to suspend load shedding during the day time this week.

Eskom provided the load shedding schedule below for clarity:

“Eskom will closely monitor the power system and provide an update should any significant changes
occur,” the utility said.

“Unplanned outages account for 15 611MW of generating capacity, while the capacity out of service for
planned maintenance is 5 487MW.

“Eskom power station general managers and their teams continue to work diligently to ensure that
additional generating capacity is recovered by bringing units on unplanned outages, and planned
maintenance back to service.”

It said 2 190MW of generating capacity is expected to return to service by Thursday.

“Eskom’s evening peak demand tonight [Tuesday] is 26 700MW.”

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Hope deferred

This comes a day after Eskom said it planned to suspend load shedding during the day for the week.

The parastatal’s spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the breaks in the power cuts were a result of the recovery of emergency reserves, the return of three generating units and the anticipated demand.

It was expected that 3 330MW of electricity would return to service by Wednesday, a far cry from the now more realistic 2 190MW by Thursday.

Additional reporting by: Faizel Patel.