Eskom has announced that Stage 3 loadshedding will be implemented from 2pm today until 5am on Monday.

The decision follows a loss of 2 700MW of generating capacity over the past 14 hours, which compounded issues on an already “strained” network.

Koeberg Unit 2 went offline after briefly returning to service on Wednesday, while two Kusile units suffered coal supply disruptions due to adverse weather conditions.

Additionally, the power utility said high levels of planned maintenance were ongoing as part of winter preparation and regulatory compliance efforts.

To manage the constrained capacity, Eskom has been relying heavily on emergency reserves. These reserves have to be replenished to service the working week come Monday.

Eskom said it is deploying additional engineering resources to expedite the repair of offline units, with an expected recovery of 6 200MW by Monday’s evening peak.

“We reiterate our commitment to ensuring that South Africa does not return to the severe levels of loadshedding experienced in 2023,” said Eskom group executive for generation, Bheki Nxumalo.

“Our highly skilled engineering teams are working diligently to restore stability.”

The message was reaffirmed by Eskom CEO, Dan Marokane, who maintained that “loadshedding is largely behind us.”

“While baseload capacity remains constrained, our generation recovery plan is addressing this challenge,” said Marokane.

“Achieving our target energy availability factor of 65%-70% will significantly reduce the risk of loadshedding.”

Local loadshedding times:

KwaDukuza Southern Grid

Friday: Not affected.

Saturday: 3am-5.30am; 11am-1.30pm; 7pm-9.30pm.

Sunday: 9am-11.30am; 5pm-7.30pm.

KwaDukuza Northern Grid

Friday: 7pm-9.30pm.

Saturday: 3am-5.30am; 11am-1.30pm.

Sunday: 1am-3.30am; 9am-11.30am; 5pm-7.30pm.

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