- South Africa’s state owned energy utility has announced that, due to unlawful industrial action, Stage 6 loadshedding will implemented at 16:00 until 22:00 this evening.
- Stage 4 will then continue to be implemented until midnight.
- Stage 6 loadshedding means that the country will be exposed to six hours of loadshedding in the next 24 hours which may be implimented intermittently.
“From 05:00 until 16:00 on Wednesday loadshedding will be implemented at Stage 4. Loadshedding 6 will then again be implemented at 16:00 – 22:00 tomorrow evening. This is due to the unlawful and unprotected labour action, which has caused widespread disruption to Eskom’s power plants,” said Eskom in a statement issued earlier this afternoon.
Three of the 10 generation units that had tripped during the night have been returned to service. This, however, is still insufficient to stave off the implementation of Stage 6 loadshedding for this evening and tomorrow evening.
Eskom currently has 3 218MW on planned maintenance, while another 17 621MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
Eskom CEO, Andre de Ruyter called an emergency media briefing this morning to highlight the seriousness of the situation and its implications. Link to the full recording HERE
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
