Eskom has pushed load shedding to stage 6 on Sunday as it continues to suffer breakdowns at its power stations.
Stage 6 load shedding took effect from 04h16 on Sunday morning, it said, after a generation unit each at Kusile and Kriel power stations tripped.
The power utility was forced to move to stage 5 load shedding on Saturday after the loss of five units.
A press briefing will be held at 10h00 to update on the situation.
Earlier this week, Eskom’s chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said that the power grid is extremely vulnerable to breakdowns and that any load shedding schedules are subject to change at short notice.
The COO said that Eskom intends to ramp up maintenance in the coming summer months, which could lead to sporadic load shedding. He added that maintenance remains a big issue for the group, as it is not seeing the outcomes it expected.
He said that as soon as some units are returned to operation following maintenance, they break down again soon after. He attributed the maintenance problems to a lack of appropriate skills and experience needed to address the issues.
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.
Following the tripping of a generation unit each at Kusile and Kriel power stations, Stage 6 loadshedding was implemented effective 04:16. Eskom appeals to the public to help conserve electricity.
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) September 18, 2022
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.
