Stage 5 load-shedding until Monday
Eskom will increase load-shedding from stage 4 to stage 5 until Monday morning following the breakdown of five more generating units at its coal power stations on Friday night and Saturday morning.
“A unit each at Kusile, Arnot and Camden, as well as two units at Duvha Power Station tripped,” the utility said in a statement on Saturday morning.
The breakdowns follow three units tripping on Friday, which had necessitated stage 4 load-shedding until 05:00 on Sunday morning and stage 3 until 05:00 on Monday morning.
The latest incidents have led to a further 2,400MW loss in generating capacity, which has escalated the required load-shedding to stage 5 from 10:00 on Saturday until at least 05:00 on Monday morning.
As of Saturday morning, the utility had 16,597MW of capacity unavailable due to breakdowns, while another 7,210MW was offline for planned maintenance.
“While some generation units are anticipated to return to service, it is necessary to escalate the load-shedding to stop the use of the emergency generation reserves and begin the replenishment thereof ahead of the week,” Eskom said.
“The emergency generation reserves have been depleted by extensive utilisation to limit the amount of load-shedding over the past two weeks.”
The utility warned that higher stages of load-shedding may be implemented at short notice, should any further breakdowns occur.
Eskom said it would provide the outlook on load-shedding stages for next week during a media briefing on Sunday.
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