Eskom has announced that it plans to implement stage one load shedding on Wednesday (4 February) from 10am to 10pm as the group’s systems remain under pressure.<\/p>\n
Eskom had previously noted that the power grid would remain under pressure the entire week as a unit of its Koeberg power station had to be taken offline due to a technical fault.<\/p>\n
The unit, which supplies 900MW of power, was scheduled to be taken down for maintenance next week.<\/p>\n
Stage one load shedding allows for up to 1000MW of the national load to be cut, stage two for up to 2000MW, and stage three for up to 4000MW.<\/p>\n
The unit was still down on Tuesday, with Eskom saying it was “trying to sync it into service. It will take a few days but it should be online soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Africans have had a dark start to 2015 amid an intensifying power and financial crisis at Eskom.<\/p>\n
The group is heavily indebted, and has missed years of deadlines to switch on two new power stations. The power utility is mulling tariff increases to recover\u00a0its financial losses.<\/p>\n
Moody\u2019s Investors Service said on Tuesday, that beyond a large increase in tariffs, a material improvement in Eskom\u2019s financial profile is not expected before new generation capacity comes on stream.<\/p>\n
The agency expected Eskom\u2019s credit metrics to remain very weak in the next 12 to 18 months.<\/p>\n
Reuters reported in January that government may deliver\u00a0the\u00a0R10 billion\u00a0it promised to help fund Eskom as soon as June 2015.<\/p>\n
Bloomberg reported that the South African government is likely to sell its 13.9% stake in Vodacom \u2013 worth around R28 billion at the current share price \u2013 to fund the utility.<\/p>\n
Stage one load shedding returns<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Eskom wants to charge more for peak demand<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Thursday load shedding risk low: Eskom<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n