• South Africa’s power utility says that this weekend will feature Stage 1 loadshedding during the day as power generation has improved.
• However, breakdowns of two of its generating units still keep the system somewhat constrained.
• Eskom says it is working around the clock to fix these generating units and return them to service.

Another Friday, another weekend power alert from Eskom. In a sudden change of pace that has our anxiety working for when it will eventually end, Eskom has managed a stronger hand on its generation despite declaring that the winter months of June, July and August would bring longer outages.

This weekend, the power utility outlines that Stage 1 is on the cards, with Stage 4 during peak hours and no loadshedding during the early morning period. These will be rotating, according to the utility’s latest announcement published to Twitter.

Friday afternoon will see Stage 3 imposed from 16:00 until midnight, whereafter loadshedding will be suspended until 05:00 on Saturday morning which will see Stage 1 until 16:00, and Stage 4 until midnight again.

This will again be repeated on Sunday.

The utility says that breakdowns across its stations are removing around 16 546MW of power generation from the grid, with only 2 497MW taken offline for planned maintenance.

It has returned four generating units back to service across the Kendal, Lethabo, and Camden power stations in the last 24 hours, owing to the lighter schedule planned for the weekend.

However, the grid is still constrained due to breakdowns at the Arnot and Matla stations.

“Further delays in returning to service a generating unit at Arnot, Grootvlei and Hendrina power stations are contributing to the current capacity constraints,” Eskom says.

“Eskom teams are working around the clock to return these generating units to service over the next few days.”

If generation improved South Africans could enjoy suspended loadshedding during the day on Saturday and Sunday, however there is still a high chance that the situation will worsen for Eskom on the weekend.

We suggest you download the EskomSePush app in order to stay abreast of power outages in your area. The app is updated consistently with reliable sources and even has a hidden snake game easter egg.

[Image – Photo by Marcel Eberle on Unsplash]