Just after 1am on Wednesday morning, Eskom announced an adjustment in the load shedding schedules. Photographer: Nadine Hutton/Bloomberg
Just after 1am on Wednesday morning, Eskom announced an adjustment in the load shedding schedule.
According to the ailing utility’s spokesperson, Daphne Mokwena, due to insufficient generation capacity and the need to further replenish emergency reserves, Stage 5 load shedding was implemented from 5am until 8pm.
“Thereafter, Stage 6 load shedding will be implemented from 8pm until 5am on Thursday,” she said.
“This pattern of implementing Stage 5 load shedding from 5am until 8pm and Stage 6 load shedding from 8pm until 5am will be repeated daily until Saturday morning.”
Mokwena said Eskom would closely monitor the power system and communicate any changes to load shedding should it be required.
News of the latest load shedding change comes just hours after Eskom announced the synchronisation of Kusile Unit 2, two days ahead of schedule.
Mokwena said this marked another significant milestone in the Eskom Generation Operational Recovery plan which aims to increase the energy availability factor to 70% by March 2025.
Mokwena said the unit will add 800 MW into the grid.
“The additional three units provide 2,400 MW which translates to two and a half stages of load shedding. With the three units back in service, Kusile in total will be generating 3,200 MW,” she said.
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