Load shedding to be reduced to stage 3 from Thursday

Eskom on Wednesday announced that stage 4 load shedding will continue until 5am on Thursday morning, and then be reduced to stage 3 until 5am on Saturday morning.

Stage 3

Spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said the power cuts are necessary due to a shortage of generation capacity as a result of persistent high levels of breakdowns. Emergency generation reserves also need to be replenished.

“A generation unit each at Arnot, Kriel, Lethabo, Matla as well as two units at Camden Power Station have returned to service since last night. A generating unit each at Hendrina, Kendal and Majuba power stations were taken offline for repairs.”

ALSO READ: Two major Joburg hospitals without water due to load shedding

Delays

“Furthermore, the delay in returning a generating unit each to service at Kendal, Komati and Tutuka power stations have added to the capacity constraints,” Mantshantsha said.

He added that Eskom will publish a further update on Friday afternoon, or as soon as there are any significant changes.

“We currently have 6 647MW on planned maintenance, while another 14 692MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.”

Load shedding frustration

Eskom has apologised to frustrated South Africans for what it called the “continued and unfortunate load shedding” which is implemented only as a last resort in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns.

South Africans have experienced load shedding for almost a month.

They were given a warning about this by Eskom’s Chief Financial Officer Jan Oberholzer during a virtual media briefing in September. He said Eskom’s maintenance was not having the effect that had hoped for.

“We are ramping up planned maintenance as we head into summer. We also find that our maintenance is not yet yielding required results. Units return to work, and then breakdown. This is due to lack of skills,” Oberholzer said.

ALSO READ: The impact of load shedding on insurance