Eskom set to ease load shedding to stages 4 & 5 from Tuesday
Eskom is set to ease load shedding to stage 4 from Tuesday in a move that would provide some respite to electricity-starved South Africans.
The planned blackouts will move to stage 4 at 5am on Tuesday and will be followed by stage 5 from 4pm to 5am on Wednesday.
The embattled power utility implemented stage 6 load shedding last week due to a lack of generation capacity.
It also postponed a media briefing scheduled for Monday afternoon on the continuous loadshedding due to "emergency engagements with the president”.
President Cyril Ramaphosa also cancelled his planned trip to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) gathering in Davos, Switzerland to attend to the country's energy crisis.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha says the 14 generators are expected to return to service this week, helping to ease the pressure on the power system.
"Eskom cautions the public, however, that there is a high degree of uncertainty associated with this and that these changes will only be possible in their entirety if the units return to service as planned.
“Changes in the stages of loadshedding can therefore occur at short notice, due to the inherent unreliability of the coal power station fleet.”
Mantshantsha says a generating unit each at Kendal, Majuba and Tutuka power stations have returned to service.
However, there are currently 12 generators out on planned maintenance, representing 5 804MW of capacity.
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