More load shedding scheduled for next week

South Africa will only get a brief respite from power cuts on Monday, with load shedding being suspended at 5am.

However, power cuts will resume at 9pm on Monday night, and has been scheduled to take place on Tuesday night as well, Eskom said in a statement released on Sunday. 

The power utility said it had made “some progress” in replenishing emergency generation reserves. 

ALSO READ: Eskom announces stage 2 load shedding

But it lost Koeberg Unit 1 on Sunday morning due to a fault on a feedwater pump, which means it will likely need to use emergency reserves extensively over the next few days to avoid further load shedding. 

The only way to achieve this, ironically, is to implement stage 2 load shedding on Monday and Tuesday night. 

Once Koeberg’s feedwater pump issue is resolved and the reactor side of the nuclear plant restarted, it will be business as usual. This is expected to take place sometime during the week.

One unit at Tutuka and Hendrina power stations, and two Kusile units, have also returned to service. 

City of Joburg rejects load shedding

When news broke on Saturday night that the country would once again be systematically plunged into darkness, the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) was quick to reject the announcement. 

The City said it wrote to Eskom, with its new mayor Mpho Moerane describing the latest bout of load shedding as “an unwarranted decision that can not be left unchallenged on behalf of the people of Johannesburg.”  

ALSO READ: City of Joburg rejects Eskom’s load shedding schedule

The mayor accused the power utility of having no intention of serving the people of Johannesburg, even after the CoJ’s attempts to assist Eskom “after the national utility claimed it had left some mini substations and transformers unrepaired for months in mostly poor communities in Johannesburg.”

To add to the chaos, City Power said late on Saturday night its customers would not be affected by load shedding on Sunday. 

It is not yet known if this statement applies to the load shedding development scheduled for tomorrow and Tuesday. 

Compiled by Nica Richards. Additional reporting by Kaunda Selisho