Stage 2 Loadshedding to Continue in South Africa

Stage 2 loadshedding is set to continue until 22:00 on Sunday night (so some will miss President Ramaphosa’s address to the nation), and will then resume at 09:00 tomorrow Monday morning, Eskom said in a statement on Sunday evening.

The power utility said that despite its best efforts to return additional generation units to service, after the breakdowns that occurred during the week, “we have not made sufficient progress to enable us to suspend loadshedding.”

Eskom said it wishes to “assure the public that implementing loadshedding is the last resort, in order to protect the national grid.”

Writing in the Power Alert 1, Eskom said: “In order to limit the impact of loadshedding on the morning traffic peak, Eskom will start implementing Stage 2 loadshedding from 09h00 tomorrow. This will continue until 22h00.

“Implementing loadshedding tomorrow is also necessary in order to replenish the emergency generation reserves to better prepare for the week.

“Last night after the peak demand period, Eskom teams successfully returned one unit at the Kriel Power Station, adding 475 mw to the grid. The return of a generation unit each at Tutuka and Kriel Power Stations has been delayed, contributing to the power constraints.”

Eskom said that unfortunately during the coming week it will continue to experience supply constraints. “Due to the much colder weather, demand for electricity has also risen significantly.

“We therefore urge the public to continue assisting us in managing consumption in order to reduce the impact of the supply constraints. With your help, Eskom can recover from this much quicker.”