CAPE Town – South Africans are expected to brace themselves for more load shedding as Eskom announces Stage 4 load shedding as of 9am today.
In a statement released, the power utility said Stage 4 will be implemented until 5am on Friday in order to manage its emergency reserves.
“It is with a great deal of disappointment that Eskom has to inform the public that further failures overnight of generation units has necessitated the implementation of Stage 4 load shedding starting at 9am this morning,” it said.
The power utility said overnight, a unit each at the Kendal, Duvha, Camden and Kusile power stations tripped.
It stated however, that four generating units have returned to service, however, the units still needed to ramp up to full output which necessitated a high usage of emergency generation reserves today.
Eskom said due to the overnight failures, load shedding will be lowered to Stage 2 from Friday until Monday, March 14, 5am.
“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.
“Eskom would like to apologise for the implementation of load shedding, and will continuously review the situation and act appropriately as circumstances change. ,” it said.
The total breakdowns amount to 15 439 MW while planned maintenance is 5 505MW of capacity.
Eskom has appealed to all South Africans to reduce the usage of electricity and to switch off all non-essential items.