Eskom says that load shedding will be pushed to stage 4 for the entire weekend following more breakdowns at power stations.
“Regretfully, due to additional breakdowns overnight, Eskom was unable to replenish the emergency generation reserves, which has worsened the current generation capacity constraints,” it said.
Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented from 10h00 on Saturday until 05h00 on Monday, 12 September.
“This is to replenish the emergency reserves in order to contain load shedding to lower stages next week,” it said.
A generation unit at Kendal was forced offline for emergency repairs, while a unit each at Majuba, Lethabo and Camden power stations, as well as Hydro de Cahorra Bassa in Mozambique, were shut down for critical planned maintenance in preparation for the week ahead.
Overnight a generation unit each at Kusile and Tutuka power stations returned to service.
Eskom currently has 5,579MW on planned maintenance, while another 16,599MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
Eskom said it will hold a media briefing on Monday to update the public on the state of the power system.
“Any further significant changes will be promptly communicated. Eskom urges all South Africans to continue using electricity sparingly,” it said.
The group recently published its load shedding outlook for the rest of the year, noting that it has to keep unplanned outages below 13,000MW to minimise rolling blackouts.
In a more load shedding-heavy scenario, if outages remain above 14,500MW, stage 2 load shedding will be frequent for the foreseeable future. If the power utility is unable to keep outages under 16,000MW, load shedding at higher stages becomes the standard.
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: Joburg has a plan to move away from Eskom and load shedding
