Half a day after suspending load shedding, power utility Eskom says rolling blackouts will have to be implemented again due to breakdowns.
The group said that stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 14h00 on Saturday and will continue until further notice.
“Breakdowns of four generating units today have forced the implementation of Stage 2 load shedding from 14h00 on Saturday. These were two units at Grootvlei and a unit each at Camden and Medupi power stations. Further, a delay in returning a generating unit to service at Lethabo Power Station has contributed to the capacity shortages,” Eskom said.
The group currently has 5,244MW on planned maintenance, while another 16,455MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
Load shedding was downgraded to stage 1 on Friday, following stage 2 for most of the week. Load shedding was suspended last weekend for a little over a day before breakdowns forced rolling blackouts to return.
Before being suspended, Eskom was on the longest load shedding streak in history, carrying the schedules over 32 days.
Earlier this week, Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said that the country will be dealing with persistent load shedding for at least 18 months before new generating capacity can be added to the grid.
“We need another year or year-and-a-half to get out of this,” Oberholzer said at the Agri SA conference near Johannesburg on Thursday. “We are going to go through a tough time over the next year and a half.”
Eskom’s load shedding outlook for the rest of the year
Schedules
For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.
Read: Free electricity and no load shedding for South Africa’s millionaire ministers: report
