Load-shedding upgraded to Stage 4

Power utility Eskom has announced load-shedding will be increased from stage 2 to stage 4 load-shedding from 13:00 on Monday.

Stage 4 will be implemented until 05:00 on Friday morning, after which stage 2 will resume until 05:00 on Saturday.

Eskom had anticipated that an additional seven generating units would have returned to service by Monday, but this had not materialised.

In addition, a generating unit at Arnot Power Station tripped, contributing to the shortages.

Eskom said the load-shedding was necessary to ration the remaining emergency generation reserves, which had been utilised extensively during the morning because Eskom was not getting the reduction in demand it expected from the implementation of stage 2 load-shedding.

As of 12:35 on Monday, the utility’s breakdowns amounted to 14,874MW, while planned maintenance was at 5,579MW of capacity.

Eskom again apologised for the inconvenience caused by the implementation of load-shedding, and requested the public to reduce the electricity usage to help it through the constraints.

“Eskom will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the power system,” it added.

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