Eskom starts the work week at stage 4 loadshedding

By all accounts, South Africans may need to prepare for loadsheding all week.

By / / Viral
stage 2 loadshedding

South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, sent a wave of frustration across the country when, on Tuesday, it was announced that loadshedding will be escalated to stage 4.

Eskom upgrades rolling blackouts

In a tweet, the state-owned utility revealed that breakdowns at the Majuba and Tutuka power plants necessitated the decision to upgrade rolling blackouts from stage 2 to stage 4 from 07:20 on Tuesday.

It is unclear how long South Africa will be kept at this heightened stage.

“A full statement will be published in due course,” Eskom noted.

According to a statement released by the national electricity provider on Saturday 17 April 2022, stage 2 loadshedding should have been sustained until Wednesday 20 April 2022, due to breakdowns at the two above-mentioned power plants, including Duvha and Arnot.

It seems, more strain has been felt at Eskom and, by the looks of it, South Africans may need to make preparations and find alternative heat sources in a week that promises to bring cold and wet weather conditions in some parts of the country.

What happens at stage 4 loadshedding?

In the statement published on Saturday, Eskom revealed more than 17 000MW of capacity was unavailable due to unplanned breakdowns. At stage 4, it appears the wattage may have increased,

At stage 4 loadshedding, Eskom doubles the outage frequency implemented on stage 2 and schedules rolling blackouts at least 12 times over a four-day period for two hours at a time. In worse cases, the power utility sheds the load from the power system 12 times over an eight-day period for four hours at a time.

More details on this current loadshedding level will be revealed at Eskom’s emergency media briefing which takes place at 10:00 on Tuesday morning.