• Following a suspension at the weekend, loadshedding is back.
• Stage 2 powercuts will come into effect from 16:00 on Tuesday until 05:00 on Wednesday when Stage 1 kicks in until 16:00.
• This cycle will repeat until further notice but Eskom says its working to restore 2 700MW to the grid by the end of this week.

What has been a nice break from the existential threat of loadshedding is now over thanks to a “setback” at Eskom.

Following the suspension of loadshedding at the weekend, powercuts are now back on the menu after three generating units have been lost. As a result, Eskom has announced that Stage 1 and Stage 2 loadshedding will be put into effect. Stage 2 will start at 16:00 on Tuesday until 05:00 on Wednesday.

“Thereafter, Stage 1 loadshedding will be implemented from 05:00 to 16:00 on Wednesday. This pattern of Stage 1 loadshedding from 05:00 to 16:00 and Stage 2 loadshedding from 16:00 to 05:00 will continue until further notice,” the utility wrote in a power alert on Tuesday afternoon.

Eskom says that at present, 14 953MW of generating capacity is unavailable due to unplanned outages and 7 638MW is unavailable due to planned outages. The utility says that its power station managers and their respective teams are working hard to ensure that 2 700MW of capacity is returned to the grid before the end of the week.

“We would like to thank those who do heed the call to use electricity sparingly and efficiently, including switching off geysers and pool pumps from 17:00 to 21:00, as this lowers demand and helps in alleviating the pressure on the power system and contributes to lower stages of loadshedding,” Eskom said.

Residents who have their power supplied by City of Johannesburg should check their schedules for the most up-to-date periods when the power will be cut. Following a disastrous implementation of its own loadshedding schedule, the municipality had to go back to the drawing board. At the top of January, a new schedule was released which sees a return to four-hour blocks of powercuts at higher stages of loadshedding.

We highly recommend our readers download or update EskomSePush for the most recent schedules.

[Image – David Zydd from Pixabay]