Just in: Load shedding confirmed ALL WEEK due to further breakdowns

Bad news late on Tuesday evening, South Africa. Load shedding is here to stay all week, with Eskom announcing that blackouts will persist from Wednesday at 10:00 until Friday 4 June at the very least. 

Load shedding was implemented on Monday and Tuesday too, but now it appears that the embattled power supplier has stuck to its guns and settled in for the long haul. 

Load shedding to start from Wednesday at 10:00 

In a statement released on Tuesday 1 June, Eskom said that Stage 2 load shedding is the result of yet more breakdowns and delays in maintenance operations at some of the company’s ageing power plants around the country. 

“Due to further breakdowns of generating units at Majuba and Arnot Power Stations today, as well delays in returning units to service at Arnot and Tutuka Power Stations, Eskom regrets to inform the public that Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented starting at 10:00 on Wednesday 2 June 2021 until 22:00 on Friday 4 June 2021,” they said. 

They said that “emergency generation reserves have been used extensively in the past days to avoid load shedding during the day”. 

“This has resulted in these being depleted, reducing available capacity. It is, therefore, necessary to implement load shedding continuously until Friday 22:00 in order to replenish the emergency reserves.”

Public urged to save electricity  

Eskom said that breakdowns currently total 13 601 MW of capacity, while another 1 330MW is unavailable due to planned maintenance. 

“Eskom teams are working hard to return generation units to service, as well as to replenish the emergency reserves,” they insisted, also appealing to the public to reduce the usage of electricity in order to assist the country get through these capacity constraints.

“Eskom will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the system,” they said.