Eskom announces stage 2 load shedding for the rest of the week

 ·10 Mar 2021

Eskom has announced that stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 17h00 on Wednesday 10 March 2021.

Thiss will continue until 23h00 on Friday night (12 March) and may continue over the weekend, the power utility said.

“There is a probability that load-shedding may be implemented at short notice should any further breakdowns occur before then,” Eskom said.

This load-shedding is attributed to continued poor performance at the Kusile, Duvha, and Tutuka power stations, as well as delays in returning some other units to service and continued breakdowns over the past week.

Eskom said it has had to extensively use its emergency generation reserves and these have been rapidly depleted.

“This period of load-shedding will be used to replenish the emergency generation reserves,” Eskom said.

The power utility currently has 6,212MW on planned maintenance and another 11,217MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns and delays.

“There is a high probability that load-shedding may continue to be implemented throughout the weekend, depending on plants returning to service from planned maintenance, as well as the levels of the emergency generation reserves,” Eskom said.

The power utility said it will continue to assess and communicate promptly as the situation changes.


Read: Eskom says it will cost over R300 billion to upgrade its power plants to meet pollution standards

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