Blessings from Eskom, folks – sort of. The embattled power supplier has announced that you will only suffer Stage 2 load shedding over the weekend, having downgraded the scheduled blackouts after implementing Stage 3 on Friday.
Eskom said on Friday 4 September that their system remains volatile, but that they have made sufficient progress in restoring their failing units to operation to ensure that South Africans will only endure limited misery over the weekend.
The weekend Stage 2 load shedding schedule will be implemented between 8:00 and 22:00 on Saturday and Sunday.
Stage 2 load shedding announced for Saturday and Sunday
In a statement released on Friday evening, Eskom said that they would need to continue implementing load shedding over the weekend to prepare for the following week and hopefully avoid having to relegate customers to a period as turbulent as the one that has just passed.
“Eskom will implement Stage 2 load shedding between 8:00 and 22:00 on Saturday and Sunday,” they said.
“This is necessary to replenish the emergency generation reserves, which were depleted over the past week, in order to better prepare for the coming week.”
They said that their infrastructure remains problematically vulnerable to sudden collapse.
“The system remains unreliable and vulnerable and Eskom will continue to communicate the stage of load shedding should there there be any further development,” they said.
Eskom urge South Africans to conserve power
Currently, Eskom’s system is suffering from a shortfall of 11 090 MW of capacity in terms of unplanned breakdowns, adding to the 5 371 MW currently out on planned maintenance.
“Eskom teams are working around the clock to return as many of these generation units to service as possible,” they said.
Eskom again asked South Africans to help the struggling state-owned entity them help by conserving energy.
“We urge the people of South Africa to continue using electricity sparingly in order to assist Eskom to reduce the instance of load shedding,” they said.
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