As we welcome the new year, Eskom announces that their load-shedding reprieve will come to an end tomorrow morning.

This as stage 2 load-shedding will be implemented from tomorrow at 05:00 until 16:00. Eskom will then escalate power cuts to stage 3 until 05:00 on Wednesday.

Power utility spokesperson Daphne Mokwena says this pattern (stage 2 between 05:00 and 16:00, and stage 3 between 16:00 and 05:00) will be repeated until further notice.

“With the current intensified maintenance aimed at improving the fleet performance, we had a setback of three generating units (2 148MW) not coming back online as anticipated. This coupled with a loss of six generating units (3 113MW), and projected increase in electricity demand requires load-shedding to be implemented,” she explains.

Mokwena adds that 16 231MW of generating capacity is currently unavailable due to unplanned outages, with a further 8 451MW out of service due to planned maintenance.

“Eskom’s load forecast for the evening peak demand for Tuesday is 23 011MW. We would like to thank those who do heed the call to use electricity sparingly and efficiently, including switching off geysers and pool pumps from 17:00 to 21:00, as this lowers demand and helps in alleviating the pressure on the power system and contributes to lower stages of load-shedding.”