Bad news for load-shedding — here is the new timetable

Eskom increased load-shedding to stage 4 on Friday afternoon without an official announcement and will rotate between stage 2, stage 3, and stage 4 over the coming weekend.

In a statement on Friday afternoon, the utility said that unplanned breakdowns and capacity lost to planned maintenance had increased since its previous update.

“Breakdowns have increased to 15,388MW of generating capacity while the generating capacity out of service for planned maintenance has increased to 7,169MW,” Eskom stated.

While it managed to return two generating units to service at Lethabo and Medupi power stations over the past 24 hours, four other units were taken offline for repairs.

These comprised a generating unit each at Hendrina and Matimba, and two units at Matla power station.

In addition, the delays in returning a unit to service at Camden, Kriel and Tutuka power stations have contributed to the capacity constraints.

Due to the prevailing generation situation, Eskom again implemented stage 4 load-shedding from 13:11 on Friday, 31 March 2023.

Stage 4 will continue to be implemented until 05:00 on Saturday, 1 April 2023.

Stage 3 load-shedding will then be implemented from 05:00 until 16:00 on Saturday, followed by stage 4 load—shedding until 05:00 on Sunday, 2 April 2023.

Day-time load-shedding will then drop down to stage 2, before increasing to stage 3 again from 16:00 on Sunday.

This is planned to last for 24 hours until 16:00 on Monday, before stage 4 load-shedding is implemented again during the evening period.

Now read: South Africa’s solar tax breaks won’t hurt Eskom — expert

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Bad news for load-shedding — here is the new timetable