The country’s struggling power utility announced that it is moving back to stage 4 load shedding from Friday morning, 27 January 2023 until further notice.
Stage 4 load shedding will kick in from 05:00 on Friday and continue indefinitely.
Just two days ago, the embattled power utility announced that stage 4 and 5 load shedding would be implemented from 5am on Thursday until Sunday afternoon.
The higher stages came courtesy of breakdowns each at Camden, Kendal, Lethabo and Majuba power stations earlier this week.
The group said it would issue an alert if anything changed- which, given its record, is very likely.
Eskom had initially planned to bring load shedding down to stage 2and then stage 1 during the week, with stage 3 coming to effect in the evenings- but these plans perished after the sudden breakdown of several units, and delays in returning other units back to service.
Group chairperson Mpho Makwana has suggested that the power utility might have to implement permanent stage 2 and 3 load shedding for the next two years to bring some degree of stability to the power station.
However, this was rejected by Eskom as permanent load shedding would not be enough to guarantee that higher stages of load shedding would not occur, or whether this would get rid of load shedding completely.
The point is moot; however, South Africa has technically been in a state of permanent load shedding since September 2022, with only few days where load shedding was temporarily suspended.
Energy experts have warned that condition is likely to get worse as the country moves towards winter, with stage 7 and 8 load shedding on the cards.
Source: Business Tech, The Citizen, image from Twitter: @Powerfm987