Cape Town - Eskom has bumped up load shedding from Stage 3 to Stage 4 until 5am on Monday, due to generation unit failures at Duvha, Kriel and Medupi power stations over the weekend.
Stage 4 is implemented as of midday on Sunday.
Load shedding will then vary between Stages 4 and 3 until Wednesday morning.
Stage 4 will be in effect until Monday at 5am, at which time it will drop to Stage 3. This will be in effect from Monday at 5am until 4pm, and then increase to Stage 4 until 5am on Tuesday morning.
Eskom will then implement Stage 3 until 4pm on Tuesday, again increasing to Stage 4 until 5am on Wednesday.
“The emergency generation reserves are almost depleted, both the diesel and pumped storage dam levels,” Eskom said in a statement on Sunday morning. “The higher load shedding stages are required to help build up the emergency generation reserves during the week.”
The utility said it would publish further updates if there were any significant changes.
“During the weekend the breakdown of a generating unit each at Duvha, Kriel and Medupi power stations, as well as the delayed returns of a generating unit each at Camden, Kusile, Komati, and Kendal power stations have exacerbated current generation capacity shortages, forcing the escalation of load shedding,” the statement read.
“Eskom teams have returned a generating unit each at Grootvlei, Hendrina, Majuba, Matla and Tutuka power stations to service.
“We currently have 6 004MW on planned maintenance, while another 14 961MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
“Loadshedding is implemented only as a last resort in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns,” Eskom said.
IOL