Eskom says it’s forced to keep loadshedding at Stage 4 as a ‘precautionary’ measure until at least Wednesday, 29 June 2022, and even then, there is a great chance that rotational power cuts may continue for the rest of the week.
UPDATE: Eskom released a statement announcing that Stage 6 loadshedding will be implemented between 16:00 and 22:00 on Tuesday evening, and once again in the same period on Wednesday, 29 June 2022.
Read more about the latest updates on Stage 6 loadshedding.
Loadshedding to remain at Stage 4: Here’s why
In a statement, the national power supplier confirmed that loadshedding will be kept at this heightened stage “to conserve generation capacity and safeguard [power plants] from damage.”
Usually, rotational power cuts are implemented as a means to preserve emergency generation reserves. However, this time around, it seems loadshedding was brought on by an ongoing labour strike. which has spilt onto this week.
The labour action that broke out at nine power stations on Friday, 24 June 2022 was the culmination of deadlocked wage negotiations, and while Eskom was awarded a court interdict to put an end to the unlawful strike, “the full staff complement has not reported for duty.”
“As a result, unplanned generation losses have not been reduced as planned, which has compelled Eskom to continue taking precautionary measures to conserve generation capacity and safeguard plant from damage,” the power utility noted.
Are higher stages of loadshedding to be expected?
The state-owned electricity provider further revealed that at least 4 000MW of generation capacity is a high risk as a direct result of the wage strike.
The rotational outages are, therefore, a necessary measure to replenish the use of emergency reserves until things get worse, and by the looks of it, there is a high likelihood of this being the case.
“Protracted strike actions may lead to further damage and prolonged delays to returning units to service, which would compound an already constrained power system,” Eskom explained.
On Sunday, the power utility had 3 894MW of energy out on planned maintenance, while more than 15 472MW was unavailable due to breakdowns.
“In addition to this, a further 600MW is unavailable due to a line fault in Mozambique that is currently experienced by the Hydroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB),” the power utility revealed.