Eskom announces immediate load-shedding

Eskom has announced that it will begin stage 2 load-shedding immediately, starting at 16:00 on Thursday, 24 April 2025, due to a compounding of factors.

“Despite significant progress in our generation recovery efforts, higher-than-expected electricity demand, the loss of generation units, and extensive planned maintenance have placed strain on the system,” it said.

“As a result, Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented from 16:00 today and will remain in effect until 05:00 tomorrow.”

The state-owned power utility said that given these ongoing constraints, it urged the public to use electricity sparingly to help reduce pressure on the grid.

Eskom did not disclose its current demand or how much generation capacity has gone offline in recent days.

However, in a statement on Friday, 18 April, the power utility said a relatively high amount — 8,974MW — of its generation capacity was under planned maintenance.

Parts of South Africa have experienced inclement and rainy weather in recent days, likely contributing to the rise in demand.

Eskom last implemented overnight load-shedding on 19–20 March after five generating units went offline before and during the evening peak.

The utility has experienced a sudden downturn in reliability this year after providing South Africa an over 300-day reprieve from rotational power cuts since April 2024.

Eskom announced the return of stage 3 load-shedding on 31 January 2025, but assured it was a temporary setback.

Eskom board chair Mteto Nyati went on national TV and said he was confident that Eskom would not have to implement load-shedding again from the end of March.

“We had this plan. This was a two-year plan which was adopted in March 2023. We have been implementing that plan,” Nyati said in February.

“We are now like two or three months away from the end of those two years. End of March 2025, that’s when the plan should have been executed,” he said.

“At the end of that plan is when we can come back, the Minister (Kgosientsho Ramokgopa), myself, and the CEO (Dan Marokane), and communicate to South Africa that there’s not going to be load-shedding.”

Promises unkept

He explained that to declare the end of load-shedding, Eskom had to complete specific projects between the beginning of February and the end of March.

These included synchronising Kusile power station’s Unit 6 to the grid and bringing Medupi Unit 4 back online.

Eskom announced on 23 March that Kusile Unit 6 was brought online. However, it is only scheduled to achieve full commercial operation in the second half of the year.

Medupi Unit 4’s return to service has also been pushed back to between the end of April and early May 2025.

However, this delay and the additional time needed to fully operationalise Kusile Unit 6 do not explain why Eskom’s energy availability factor (EAF) has stubbornly remained below 60%.

MyBroadband asked Eskom and Nyati why he has not called the press conference he promised in February to declare the end of load-shedding.

Nyati forwarded the query to Eskom, and Eskom declined to comment, saying it would provide feedback at a future media briefing.

“We believe it would be prudent for Eskom to include updates on the progress of its EAF and overall Generation Operational Recovery Plan in its forthcoming media briefing on its Power System and Winter Outlook,” an Eskom spokesperson said.

Eskom has said on several occasions that its system and winter outlook briefing will happen sometime in April. That leaves three working days in which Eskom can still hold the briefing.