Stage 2 load shedding to return on Tuesday afternoon

The struggling power utility was forced to implement the latest round of rolling blackouts on Monday after Unit 5 of Medupi Power Station tripped, removing some 700MW of capacity from the grid.

The rolling blackouts were suspended on Tuesday morning, but the utility says there has been a further shortage of generation capacity.

Spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha says load shedding will in all likelihood persist throughout the week.

There is some good news though, with the utility managing to return more units to service.

“Unit 5 of Medupi Power Station returned to service during the night. Three generating units at the Camden Power Station tripped during the night, contributing to the current shortage of capacity. Eskom teams are working hard to return as many of these units to service as possible.

“We are managing the emergency generation reserves to limit the stage of load shedding. The overnight load shedding will be used to replenish the dam level at the pump storage power stations in preparation for the remainder of the week,” says Mantshantsha.

The power utility is running at  4 804MW on planned maintenance, while another 14 449MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned breakdowns.

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