UPDATE
Eskom has issued a power alert for Monday and the bad news is that despite there being less capacity that is offline, loadshedding will need to be upgraded.
As of time of publication, Eskom reports that 17 255MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns while 1 904MW is unavailable due to planned maintenance.
Despite the upgrade in frequency to Stage 4, loadshedding will only be in place from 17:00 to 22:00 in the evening.
Due to a further loss of generating capacity, loadshedding will be increased to Stage 4 from
17:00 – 22:00 tonight. pic.twitter.com/yEwGa2Rvch— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) May 16, 2022
Original story
As a new week dawns, South Africans will have to contend with evening loadshedding once again.
At the weekend the situation at Eskom worsened rather than improved and as a result, by Sunday morning some 17 640MW of capacity was unavailable due to breakdowns. By contrast, only 2 094MW was taken offline for planned maintenance.
As such, Eskom has announced that loadshedding will be in place during the evening peak throughout this week.
“On Monday and Tuesday evening, at the same times, loadshedding will be implemented at Stage 3,” Eskom said, referencing the evening loadshedding which has been in effect since last week.
“Thereafter loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 2 for the rest of the week. Eskom will continue to closely monitor the system, adjust and communicate changes as may be necessary,” the utility added.
While we appreciate the fact that Eskom has given South Africans more than an hour lead time to prepare for loadshedding, we also have to hope that Eskom can get a handle on its infrastructure.
Should Eskom lose more capacity and need to increase the frequency of loadshedding we will be sure to update you. We also suggest making use of the EskomSePush app in order to stay up to date on loadshedding in your area just in case.
Due to a continued loss of generating capacity, Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented from 17:00 – 22:00 tonight, and Stage 3 will be implemented on Monday and Tuesday evening pic.twitter.com/OGj4PQW0eM
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) May 15, 2022
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
