Eskom implemented stage 3 load-shedding from 2pm on Friday and expects this will be effective until Monday morning.
According to the power utility, 2,700MW of capacity were lost in the past 14 hours.
It includes Koeberg unit 2, which Eskom said was taken offline after being brought back on Wednesday, and two Kusile units whose coal operations were suboptimal after adverse weather in the area.
Higher levels of planned maintenance outages aimed at winter preparation and meeting regulatory and environmental licensing requirements are still under way.
“We have had delays in returning units that previously tripped back to the grid as well as the return of three units that have been on longer-term outage that will bring back 2,500MW to the grid, which will happen over the coming weeks,” said Eskom Group executive for generation Bheki Nxumalo.
The constrained capacity resulted in increased reliance on emergency reserves during this week, which makes it necessary to replenish these resources during the weekend in preparation for the business week.
The power utility said it is focused on deploying extra engineering resources to expedite the repair of units now offline.
It expects 6,200MW will be restored to service by Monday's evening peak.
Eskom said the events that triggered stage 3 load-shedding occurred while the system was already under strain.
“We reiterate our commitment to ensuring South Africa does not return to the levels of load-shedding we experienced in 2023. Two years into delivering the generation recovery plan that will end load-shedding we are at a challenging time and the full force of our highly skilled engineering resources are deployed and focused,” said Nxumalo.
“Load-shedding is a painful reminder of the past and situations such as this drive our resolve to double down and stay the course to end load-shedding,” said Eskom Group CEO, Dan Marokane
“We again apologise to the nation for this temporary setback. We have to keep our focus on intensive maintenance as evidenced by year-to-date (April 1 2024 to February 27 2025) load-shedding that was suspended for 325 days (7,871 hours), compared with 32 days (2,103 hours) in the same period last year.” Marokane said.
“Electricity supply was available 98% of the time compared with just 9.6% last year, that was a result of the deep maintenance we did in summer 2023/2024.”
Marokane said load-shedding is “largely behind us due to structural improvements in the generation fleet”.
“While baseload capacity remains constrained, our generation recovery plan is addressing this challenge. Achieving our goal of a stable energy availability factor of 65%-70% will significantly reduce the risk of load-shedding.”
Eskom said its summer outlook, published on August 25, remains unchanged.
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