Eskom Ramps Up Load-Shedding: Here’s What You Need to Know

Eskom, South Africa’s dominant power supplier, has announced a surge in load-shedding measures, beginning from Wednesday, 5 July 2023. This comes in response to an alarming increase in generator breakdowns.

• The Shift in Schedule: Eskom plans to kick-start Stage 1 load-shedding at the crack of dawn, 05:00, which will remain effective until 16:00. Following that, it will switch to Stage 3 load-shedding until the stroke of midnight. This pattern will recur until midnight of Thursday, 6 July.
• The Root Cause: Eskom attributed the escalation in load-shedding to an unprecedented increase in generator failures. “Stage 3 load-shedding will be implemented from 16:00 today until midnight“, the company affirmed.
• The Weekend Outlook: On Friday, Eskom will revert to its current routine of Stage 3 load-shedding, active from 16:00 until midnight.
• Behind the Scenes: Currently, Eskom has 4,264MW of generation capacity on planned maintenance, and an additional 14,991MW is out of order due to malfunctions.
• Power Stations Updates: Over the past day, units at Grootvlei, Kriel, and Matla stations were restored, while units at Majuba and Tutuka stations encountered breakdowns. A key contributing factor to these capacity constraints, Eskom reveals, is the delay in restoring a generation unit at the Tutuka Power Station.

Eskom promises further updates as significant changes transpire in the load-shedding situation.

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