After days of reprieve, Eskom has returned with news that South Africa will go into Stage 2 loadshedding from Thursday until Sunday, between 12:00 and 23:00.
Stage 2 loadshedding confirmed: Here’s what we know
In a statement, the national power producer revealed that due to a number of factors, it’s been left with no choice but to implement rotational power cuts.
“Two generation units at the Kusile Power Station tripped due to the failure of the main coal feed conveyor belts supplying coal to the units,” Eskom explained.
Moreover, the power utility confirmed that further unit failures at Kriel and Duvha power stations only exacerbated Eskom’s problems. Consequently, more than 14 000 megawatts of power are not being fed to the national grid.
“We currently have 5 358MW on planned maintenance, while another 14 748MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned maintenance, breakdowns and the outage delays mentioned above,” the utility added.
‘Loadshedding stage may change at short notice’ – Eskom
The severity of the situation at Kusile, Kriel and Duvha threatens further breakdowns which could necessitate a change in the loadshedding stage.
“The system remains vulnerable and unpredictable, should any further breakdowns occur, the stage of loadshedding may change at short notice,” the statement read.
How to check your loadshedding schedule
This doesn’t bode well for the private sector, as a large majority of workers have been working remotely since the start of the pandemic.
Hence, people are encouraged to plan ahead in preparation for the painstakingly long periods of outages.
There are two ways to find out when loadshedding will hit your neighbourhood. One way is to visit the Eskom website and follow the prompts to your district’s map which is divided into area numbers.
Another simpler way is to download the Eskom Se Push app on your device’s store and allow it to access your location. Based on this, you will receive an alert on the loadshedding schedule for your neighbourhood.