At the beginning of the week, Eskom said loadshedding was expected to end by Wednesday morning. That is not going to the be the case, however, as the power utility has issued an update on Twitter confirming that it will move to Stage 1 loadshedding from Wednesday morning at 05:00 and remain at that stage until Saturday the 20th March at 05:00.
It serves as yet another blow to South Africans, who have once again had to struggle with a continued bout of loadshedding as Eskom scrambles to get its grid in order.
As such, this latest episode without power serves as not too subtle reminder of Eskom’s statement earlier in the week, where loadshedding is expected to be a fixture for the country until September.
Eskom explains that while it has successfully returned capacity to four generation units at Kusile, Grootvlei, Kriel and Matla, it has still not been enough to end loadshedding this week altogether. This as generation capacity at Medupi, Arnot and Komati have been lost during the same period.
The power utility now states that 5 850MW generation capacity is unavailable due to maintenance, with a further 13 433MW unavailable due to breakdowns and continued delays.
With the Easter weekend on the horizon, it is looking increasingly likely that many South Africans will be sharing the holiday period with loved ones without power.
As it has always done, Eskom has requested that South Africans use electricity sparingly at this time.
Loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 1 from 05:00 on Wednesday and continue until 05:00 on Saturday as the power system is still severely constrained pic.twitter.com/V0LSjqKHDd
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) March 16, 2021
[Image – Photo by Fré Sonneveld on Unsplash]
