Eskom has announced that owing to breakdowns and persistent shortages of generation capacity Stage 4 load-shedding will continue until Sunday morning.
“Breakdowns of a generating unit each at Kriel, Majuba and Tutuka power stations over the past 24 hours have necessitated the continuation of load-shedding at Stage 4 until Sunday at 05:00,” Eskom said Friday.
“Thereafter load shedding will be implemented at Stage 3 until 05:00 on Monday.”
Eskom said while some generation units are anticipated to return to service next week, it was necessary to extend the load-shedding to replenish the emergency generation reserves.
The power utility said emergency generation reserves have been depleted by “extensive utilisation” to limit the amount of load-shedding over the past two weeks.
“We currently have 7 210MW on planned maintenance, while another 15 319MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns. Eskom will promptly communicate any further changes,” said Eskom.
“Eskom apologises for the continued and unfortunate load-shedding, which is implemented as a last resort in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns and carry out planned maintenance to return units to service.”
