Eskom announces increased load-shedding for Saturday
Eskom has announced that it will implement stage 6 load-shedding from 20:00 on Saturday, 18 February 2023.
Stage 6 load-shedding will run until 05:00 on Sunday, 19 February 2023. After that, the state-owned power utility will implement stage 4 load-shedding until further notice.
However, it noted that it might have to implement stage 6 load-shedding on Sunday evening.
Eskom said the increase to stage 6 load-shedding is needed to replenish emergency generation reserves.
“In order to create space to replenish the emergency generation reserves, Eskom will implement stage 6 load-shedding from 20:00 tonight until 05:00 tomorrow morning,” it said.
“Thereafter stage 4 loads-shedding will be implemented until further notice, with the possibility that stage 6 load-shedding might again be implemented during Sunday night.”
On Friday, 17 February, the power utility announced that it would implement stage 4 load-shedding until further notice after several generation units broke down.
A unit each at Koeberg, Medupi, Kriel, Arnot and Lethabo power stations were offline due to breakdowns.
However, Eskom revealed that the tripped Koeberg generation unit was returned to the grid at 07:00 on Saturday.
“Around 22:00 on Friday evening, 17 February 2023, the turbine on Unit 2 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station tripped while replacing a failed electronic turbine protection module,” Eskom said.
“The reactor responded to the turbine trip by reducing power and it remained critical, as designed, with no nuclear safety consequences.”
The power utility said the generation unit would ramp up to full load over the course of the day.
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