South Africa will be plunged into darkness this week, Eskom announced in a statement, on Wednesday.
#PowerAlert 1
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) January 6, 2021
Eskom to implement Stage 2 loadshedding from 22:00 until 05:00 for two nights@News24 @SABCNews @NewzroomAfrika @eNCA @IOL @ewnupdates @SundayTimesZA @SowetanLIVE pic.twitter.com/sLPsf5c7gv
The power utility made the announcement around the same time President Cyril Ramaphosa was locked in talks with the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) over recent developments in the fight against Covid-19.
Stage 2 load shedding confirmed for the next two days
In the statement, Eskom revealed that from 22:00, South Africa will go into stage 2 load shedding, until 05:00. This schedule will roll over into Thursday with no clear directive on what the state will be this weekend.
“The loadshedding is necessary in order to recover and preserve the emergency generation reserves that have been utilised to support the system during the week following [the] earlier-than-planned shutdown of Koeberg Unit 1 and other units whose return to service has been delayed,” Eskom explained.
The utility says it is doing the best it can to maintain a balance in the country’s power system. Things, however, are further complicated by the fact that Eskom is in its maintenance period at the moment.
“Eskom continues to implement reliability maintenance during this period, and thus the system will continue to be constrained and the risk of load shedding remains elevated,” the utility added.
This bout of rotational power cuts was forced by the failure of two ‘large’ power stations that provide a considerable amount of energy to the system.
“Eskom will communicate timeously should there be any significant changes to the power system,” the statement concluded.