After a week of high stages of load shedding, which was expected to change on Thursday, the power cuts are set to continue into the weekend.
LOAD SHEDDING TO CONTINUE UNTIL MONDAY
Eskom says load shedding will continue at the high Stage 5 level until Saturday morning.
From then on, it will drop to Stage 4 and then Stage 3 until Monday morning, spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said.
“Loadshedding continues to be implemented at Stage 5 until 05:00 on Saturday morning. Thereafter, it will be lowered to Stage 4 until 05:00 on Sunday.”
It will be reduced to Stage 3 until Monday morning at 05:00, he said.
The blackouts this weekend is to replenish the pumped storage dam levels which have been extensively used over the past week.
Mantshantsha says Eskom is currently experiencing constraints from its diesel suppliers. This is affecting the availability of bulk diesel to the Ankerlig and Gourikwa Open Cycle Gas Turbines, which have a combined capacity of 2 000MW.
“Should this uncertainty of diesel supplies persist, higher stages of load shedding may be required.”
Sikonathi Mantshantsha
Since Thursday, a generation unit each at Camden, Kriel, Majuba and Matla power stations were taken offline for repairs.
But a generation unit at Hendrina and two at Kusile power stations returned to service.
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BLACKOUTS TO CONTINUE AGAIN FROM MONDAY
The current capacity constraint does not seem to be coming to an end any time soon. Instead, load shedding will continue throughout the whole of next week, said Mantshantsha.
Current indications are that load shedding will be implemented at Stage 3 for most of the week.
“A further update will be published on Sunday afternoon, as soon as there are any significant changes,” he said.
Meanwhile, the power utility has requested consumers to switch off all non-essential electrical appliances during the periods that power is on. This is to avoid power surges when power returns.
“Failure to do so may lead to unnecessary trips or damage to household appliances when the supply is restored,” said Eskom.
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