Stage 6 load shedding extended as units at four stations go down
Power utility Eskom says it was forced to implement all-day stage 6 load shedding on Friday, after it lost more units at four of its power stations.
The group said that load shedding will be pushed up to stage 6 indefinitely from 05h00.
This is due to failures of generating units at Tutuka, Kriel, Duvha and Kendal power stations since yesterday, it said.
Eskom will publish a further update as soon as there are any significant changes.
The group was previously alternating between stage 5 during the day and stage 6 in the evenings. However, system demand reports from the utility show that it has been shedding above 6,000MW for the last few days.
This means that Eskom is load shedding at the equivalent of stage 7, but managing to keep the schedules restricted to stage 6 through load curtailment.
Eskom is struggling to produce 26,000MW consistently, usually falling somewhere between 23,000MW and 25,000MW. Demand, meanwhile, is between 30,000MW and 32,000MW.
According to energy experts, demand is expected to ramp up significantly in the coming months as winter cod hits the country. This could see demand pushed as high as 37,000MW, which paints a worrying picture for load shedding.
Several analysts and experts have warned that the country will experience the equivalent of stage 10 load shedding.
Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has assured the country that the grid will not collapse, saying that there is always around 2,000MW on reserve to prevent this from happening.
However, without a significant boost to supply, and a significant cut to demand, there is a high risk that the country will be pushed beyond stage 6 load shedding in winter. Speaking to 702 this week, he said that this could see households and businesses seeing 16 hours of outages in 32 hour blocks.
He said there are plans and proposals for the country to prevent this, which includes securing capacity from neighbouring countries and “aggressively” cutting household demand.
Schedules
For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town (PDF)
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.
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