South Africa’s power utility Eskom have announced Stage 2 power cuts will commence from 17:00 on Tuesday evening. The power cuts are set to continue throughout the week until 05:00 on Monday.
Eskom explained, “This loadshedding has been caused by a shortage of generation capacity owing to delays in returning to service, as well as breakdowns of nine generators”.
Breakdowns of single generation units at the Lethabo, Tutuka, Ingula, Drakensberg, Arnot as well as two units each at Hendrina and Matla power stations have put South Africa’s electricity grid under pressure.
Eskom says some of these generation units will be returned to service over the next few days.
They added, “We also expect to rely on the use of emergency generating reserves to limit the stage of loadshedding during this period”.
Approximately 15 067 MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned breakdowns while 3 875 MW is unavailable due to planned maintenance.
Eskom would like to remind the public that loadshedding is implemented only as a last resort to protect the national grid.
The power utility is calling on customers to use electricity sparingly to reduce the occurrence of loadshedding.
