Eskom hits Stage 2 load shedding on Friday
Eskom says will implement stage 2 load shedding from 10:00 on Friday morning (17 April), and this is likely to continue until 22:00 this evening.
The group said on its Twitter account: “As from 10:00 today, load shedding will move from stage 1 to stage 2”.
The group said earlier in the day: “Eskom will implement stage 1 load shedding from 06:00 this morning until 22:00 tonight.”
At a media briefing on Wednesday, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said South Africans should expect load shedding to be a way of life for at least the next two years. “There will be load shedding for the next two years,” she said.
“It is time for South Africans and the economy to adapt to the situation and find a way to save electricity and manage their productivity during the few hours of load shedding when it occurs.”
Load shedding started on Sunday and was kicked up a notch on both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon when Eskom moved to stage 3 as it continues to battle meet demand amid a maintenance backlog.
On Thursday it moved from stage 1 in the morning to stage 2 in the afternoon due to a further shortage of generation capacity as additional units have had to be taken out of service for unplanned maintenance caused by technical faults.
The outlook for the weekend is bleak as demand continuously outstrips supply.
- Saturday (18 April): The capacity available to meet that evening’s peak demand is 30 165 MW (including open cycle gas turbines) while demand is forecast at 29 428 MW.
- Sunday (19 April): The capacity available to meet that evening’s peak demand is 30 165 MW (including open cycle gas turbines) while demand is forecast at 29 692 MW.
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