Load shedding increased to stage 5 after more breakdowns

In a bad start to the week, Eskom announced that load shedding will be increased to stage 5 from 4pm on Monday afternoon.

Stage 5 load shedding

The parastatal said stage 5 load shedding will be in place until 5am on Tuesday morning.

South Africa is scheduled to return to stage 4 load shedding after that.

Eskom said load shedding had to be ramped up after the failure of five generating units on Monday.

Following the failure of five generating units today, Stage 5 loadshedding will be implemented from 16:00 today until 05:00 tomorrow whereafter Stage 4 loadshedding will resume until further notice.

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Over 35 days of no load shedding, but will it last?

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) March 6, 2023

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Stage 4 load shedding was put in place on Sunday after generating units at the Camden, Duvha, Majuba and Kriel power stations suffered breakdowns. 

The return to service of generating units at Hendrina, Medupi and Tutuka power stations was also delayed.

2023 has been a disastrous year for Eskom. Load shedding has been implemented for every day of the year thus far.

So far, there have been 29 days of stage 4. This is followed by 15 days of stage 6 and 12 days of stage 5.

Stage 3 has been experienced for eight days, while stage 2 was only in place for three days.

National state of disaster

In a bid to solve South Africa’s energy crisis, the government last week signed the new regulations into law related to the Disaster Management Act.

President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster during his state of the nation address.

Here are some of the measures government wants to use to prevent load shedding:

1. All government institutions (within national, provincial and local spheres) must adopt energy-saving measures to contain the effects of rotational power cuts and prevent the escalation of the electricity shortfall.
2. Ensure the continuous operation of health facilities, water infrastructure and other essential infrastructure and services, including by installing alternative energy sources or other measures to provide an uninterrupted power supply.
3. Release and mobilise available resources, including human resources, stores, equipment, ships, aircraft platforms, vehicles, and facilities.
4. Release their personnel for the rendering of emergency services.
5. Provide funds for the aforementioned points subject to affordability.

Additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe

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