Eskom pushes load shedding to stage 4 indefinitely
Less than a day after laying out its schedule for the week ahead, power utility Eskom has been forced to escalate load shedding to stage 4 until further notice.
Stage 4 load shedding will now kick in from 12h00 on Monday (11 September) and will continue indefinitely.
Eskom said the escalation is necessary due to the failure of generating units at Arnot, Duvha and Grootvlei power stations, as well as the delay in returning generating units to service.
Another update will be announced should any significant changes occur.
Load shedding was initially expected to fluctuate between stage 3 and stage 4 (and eventually stage 2 and stage 4) this week, following a week of stage 6 outages last week.
During a press briefing on Sunday, electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa attributed the recent escalation in load shedding to a trifecta of issues: demand remains high and often unpredictable; Eskom has suffered several outages; and planned maintenance has ramped up following the winter cut.
While the minister expressed confidence that the electricity situation will improve heading into the last quarter of the year – as the Kusile Power Station will be adding much-needed capacity to the grid, providing a buffer for increased maintenance elsewhere – he did warn that the situation is likely to remain volatile until then.
The minister said that while planned maintenance is being ramped up, any unplanned outages or delays in getting units back online would mean that load shedding would have to be intensified.
“If (planned maintenance) coincides with a number of units failing on their own, then you are exposed. And the only option available to us is intensified load shedding,” he said.
He stressed that the government and Eskom would not compromise on the ramping up planned maintenance.
“It is a calculated risk. We are going to do this the right way; we are going to fix these units. It’s a short-term pain for long-term gain,” he said.
Schedules
For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town (PDF)
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
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: Electricity minister warns of more load shedding pain – until Kusile is back up
Loading ...