South Africa’s power utility company, Eskom has announced that it will implement stage 2 load-shedding from 22:00 on Tuesday 9 February 2021.
Load-shedding will continue until 05:00 on Wednesday 10 February, with the power utility stating that rolling blackouts are necessary to restore depleted emergency generation reserves.
“Eskom regrets to inform the public that load-shedding will implemented from 22:00 tonight until 05:00 tomorrow morning,” Eskom said.
“This load-shedding is necessary in order to preserve and replenish the emergency generation reserves and to maximise the capacity available during the daytime hours.”
Eskom said the power generation system remains severely constrained due to high generation unit breakdowns over the past two days, as well as the delay in returning units on planned maintenance to service.
The power utility currently has 4,858MW on planned maintenance, while another 14,375MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns and delays.
“Eskom expects some of these generation units to return to service from tomorrow and will continuously assess the situation,” it said.
“As previously communicated, Eskom continues to implement reliability maintenance during this period, and as such, the system will continue to be constrained, with the risk of load-shedding remaining elevated.”
The power utility requested South Africans to use electricity sparingly as the system remains unpredictable and vulnerable.
“We will communicate timeously should there be any significant changes to the power system,” Eskom said.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com