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Eskom implemented stage 3 load shedding on Friday afternoon, cautioning that this is anticipated to continue through to Monday following the loss of 2700MW over the past 14 hours.
Power utility spokesperson, Daphne Mokoena, said they would need to replenish emergency reserves over the weekend, while ongoing high levels of planned maintenance continues.
“This includes Koeberg Unit 2, which was taken offline after being brought back on Wednesday, and two Kusile Units whose coal operations went sub-optimal following adverse weather in the area,” she said.
Mokoena said higher levels of planned maintenance outages, aimed at winter preparation and meeting regulatory and environmental licensing requirements are still underway.
“The constrained capacity resulted in the increased reliance on emergency reserves during this week, which makes it necessary to focus on replenishing these critical resources during the weekend in preparation for the business week,” she added.
Mokoena said it is anticipated that 6200MW will be restored to service by Monday’s evening peak.
“The events that triggered Stage 3 load shedding occurred while the system was already under strain,” she added.
Group executive for generation, Bheki Nxumalo, said Eskom reiterated its commitment to ensuring that South Africa is in no way returning to the levels of load shedding experienced in 2023.
"Two years into delivering the generation recovery plan, that will bring an end loadshedding, we are at a challenging time and the full force of our highly skilled engineering resources are deployed and focussed,” he said.
