Eskom ‘Regretfully’ Plunges South Africa into Stage 4 Loadshedding

Eskom has announced that “regretfully Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented from 12:00 on Wednesday until 05:00 on Friday”, but that it’s no cause for alarm (although it’s certainly alarming for businesses and matric learners who need to study online). Stage 2 loadshedding will continue from Friday at 05:00 until 05:00 on Saturday.

South Africa’s power utility blamed the power cuts on a “further shortage of generation capacity”.

Eskom said that over the past 24 hours a unit each at Medupi, Kusile and Matla power stations tripped while a unit each at Lethabo and Arnot power stations were forced to shut down. “This constrained the power system further requiring extensive use of emergency reserves and therefore, hampering the recovery of these reserves,” Eskom said in a statement today, Wednesday, 27 October.

“Some generating units have returned to service and we anticipate another two units to return to service during the day. In addition, Koeberg Unit 1 is expected to return to service today and begin ramping up to full output within 48 hours.

”Total breakdowns currently amount to 14 957 MW while planned maintenance is 5 301 MW of capacity.”

Eskom said loadshedding is being implemented as a “last resort” to maintain the stability of the power system regardless of the stage of loadshedding.

“The implementation of Stage 4 loadshedding is therefore, no cause for alarm as the power system remains to be effectively controlled,” said Eskom, and again apologised for the inconvenience while requesting that South Africans reduce their usage of electricity.