Eskom Escalates to Stage 3 Cuts
Amid a dire shortage of generation capacity, South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, has announced an intensification of load shedding measures, moving to stage 3 until the early hours of Saturday. This comes as the utility grapples with unplanned outages totaling 17,391MW, further hampered by delays in returning units, including the critical Koeberg Unit 1, back online.
Weekend Relief in Sight
The beleaguered utility assures a slight respite over the weekend, with a reduction to stage 2 from Saturday morning, followed by a further decrease to stage 1 on Sunday morning, before reverting to stage 2 by evening.
Load Shedding Schedule Breakdown:
- Thursday: Stage 2 prevails during the day, escalating to Stage 3 in the evening.
- Friday: A full day of Stage 3, underscoring the severity of the situation.
- Saturday: Easing into Stage 2 in the evening after a day-long Stage 3.
- Sunday: Starting with Stage 2, dropping to a more lenient Stage 1, and concluding with Stage 2.
Ongoing Efforts to Restore Capacity
Eskom is fighting against the clock to restore approximately 4,700MW of capacity by Sunday evening. Their teams are working relentlessly to mitigate the crisis and to bring additional units back into service, aiming to alleviate the heightened stages of load shedding.
Calls for Public Cooperation
As evening peak demand is projected at a staggering 27,668MW, Eskom extends gratitude to consumers who are actively reducing their electricity usage. Simple measures like turning off geysers and pool pumps, as urged by the utility, are small yet significant steps towards easing the strain on the national grid.
Monitoring and Communication
Eskom remains vigilant, closely monitoring the power system. They commit to updating the public on any necessary changes to the current load shedding strategy, as South Africa endures the economic and social impacts of these disruptive power cuts.