- Eskom releases a press statement notifying electricity customers of stage 4 load shedding.
- The load shedding has been attributed to poor power generation.
South Africa’s state-owned utility Eskom has issued a press release notifying electricity customers of the stage 4 load shedding.
“It is with a great deal of disappointment, Eskom has to inform the public that further failures overnight of generation units has necessitated the implementation of Stage 4 load shedding starting at 09:00 this morning. Unfortunately, this has to continue until 05:00 on Friday. After that, load shedding will be lowered to Stage 2 until 05:00 on Monday morning.
Eskom would like to apologise for implementing load shedding and will continuously review the situation and act appropriately as circumstances change. Members of the media are invited to an emergency media briefing starting at 10:00.
Overnight a unit each at Kendal, Duvha, Camden and Kusile power stations tripped. Since then, we have returned four units to service. However, these units still need to ramp up to full output, necessitating a high usage of emergency generation reserves today. This being the fourth day of extremely high diesel usage, the emergency reserves are being depleted faster than can be replenished.
Stage 4 load shedding will therefore give us the space required to replenish the emergency reserves and continue to manage the system safely. Total breakdowns amount to 15 439MW while planned maintenance is 5 505MW of capacity.
Eskom appeals to all South Africans to help us limit the impact of load shedding by reducing electricity usage and switching off all non-essential items,” the press release stated.
The utility promises to communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the power system.