The national power utility announced a new round of load-shedding, warning consumers to use electricity sparingly, as the system remains ‘vulnerable and unpredictable’.
Stage 2 load-shedding is expected to continue until 11pm tonight – but may be extended into the weekend.
Eskom said a lack of generation capacity was to blame, particularly at the
Kusile, Duvha, and Tutuka power stations, along with delays in getting other units up and running. Some 6 212 MW of capacity was unavailable because of ‘planned maintenance’, with a further 11 217 MW of capacity lost to breakdowns and delays.
The power utility said it was having to ‘extensively’ use emergency generation reserves.
‘This period of load-shedding will be used to replenish the emergency generation reserves,’ Eskom said in a statement.