Eskom plunged South Africa into Stage 5 loadshedding at short notice, following numerous breakdowns at key power plants.
Why did Eskom implement Stage 5 loadshedding?
In a statement, the national electricity provider ‘regrettably’ escalated loadshedding from Stage 4 to Stage 5 after it lost energy contribution from five power generating units overnight, removing a combined 2 400MW output from the grid.
This heightened stage will remain in place until Monday, 19 September 2022, barring further breakdowns in the power utility’s frail infrastructure.
“On Sunday, through a media briefing Eskom will provide the outlook of the loadshedding stages for the week ahead as the teams are working around the clock to return units to service,” the statement read.
According to Eskom, Kusile, Arnot, Camden, and Duvha are the main contributors to the latest loadshedding setback.
“While some generating units are anticipated to return to service, it is necessary to escalate the loadshedding to stop the use of emergency generation reserves and begin the replenishment thereof ahead of the week. The emergency generation reserves have been depleted by extensive utilisation to limit the amount of loadshedding over the past two weeks,” Eskom added.
At the time this article was published, the national electricity provider had 7 210MW of power out of the grid due to planned maintenance, “while another 16 597MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.”
In Cape Town, areas receiving power supply from the City will remain on Stage 3 until 22:00 on Saturday. Thereafter, Stage 5 loadshedding will be implemented until 05:00 on Monday, 19 September 2022.
Readers from these metros can check the latest loadshedding schedule below:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City