Eskom has reduced load shedding to Stage 4 from 5am to 4pm daily, with Stage 5 commencing afterwards.
This is because Eskom intends to restore at least 14 generating units to service this week, which would relieve strain on the power system, according to the company.
“Eskom cautions the public, however, that there is a high degree of uncertainty associated with this and that these changes will only be possible in their entirety if the units return to service as planned. Changes in the stages of load shedding can therefore occur at short notice, due to the inherent unreliability of the coal power station fleet.
“A further update will be published as soon as any significant changes occur,” Eskom said.
The energy provider said that it has acquired more fuel for its emergency generating units and that two additional units are now operational.
“Eskom procured an additional 50 million litres of diesel on 06 January 2023. This fuel will be utilised sparingly to manage the pumped storage dam levels and to limit the amount of load shedding during the day. Together, these emergency generators contribute 5 700MW of capacity.
“A generating unit each at Kendal, Majuba and Tutuka power stations have returned to service,” Eskom said.
By Monday evening, outages at power plants had made 16 173 MW of capacity unavailable, and at least 5 804 MW of capacity was also down due to maintenance.
“The summer planned maintenance programme continues, and will taper off during the winter months, helping to make more capacity available to produce electricity. There are currently 12 generators out on planned maintenance,” Eskom said.
»Load shedding slightly eased by Eskom to Stage 4«