Cape Town - Power utility Eskom on Tuesday announced it would be implementing Stage 2 load shedding from 5pm until 5am on Wednesday.
This comes hours after it suspended load shedding at 5am on Tuesday morning.
In a statement, Eskom said this was due to the continued shortage of generation capacity.
“Eskom regrets to inform the public that Stage 2 load shedding will again be implemented from 5pm this evening,” it said.
The utility also asked South Africans to brace themselves for possible load shedding throughout the week.
“Eskom would like to inform the public that this constrained supply situation will persist throughout the week, with the possibility that more load shedding is likely to be implemented should the generation capacity deteriorate further,” it said.
The Unit 5 generating unit at the Medupi Power Station which broke down on Monday night and was in part the cause of the implementation of load shedding with immediate effect, was returned to service during the night.
However, Eskom said three generating units at its Camden Power Station tripped during the night, which contributed to the current shortage of capacity.
“We currently have 4 804MW on planned maintenance, while another 14 449MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned breakdowns. We are managing the emergency generation reserves to limit the stage of load shedding,” the power utility said.
It said the overnight load shedding would be used to replenish its dam level at the pump storage power stations in preparation of load shedding.
“We would like to reiterate that load shedding is implemented only as a last resort in order to protect the national grid. We will communicate should there be any significant changes to the supply situation,” Eskom said.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
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