Stage 2 loadshedding continues from 9:00 on Friday morning, Eskom warned South Africa. Indications are that the loadshedding might go into the weekend – but Eskom will update the nation.
The power utility re-introduced loadshedding on Thursday night. The announcement that Eskom would implement stage 2 loadshedding from 21:00 on Thursday to 06:00 on Friday morning surprised many.
Eskom says the loadshedding is due to a shortage of generating capacity and depleted emergency resources.
“In addition, we are taking out three big units for maintenance today,” it described.
“We unreservedly apologise to South Africans for the negative impact this may have on them.
“Customers are advised to check their loadshedding schedules on the Eskom or municipal websites depending on who supplies them. We want to assure the nation that we continue to work tirelessly to bring back online units that experienced breakdowns,” the utility said.
“Keeping generation units outages below 9 500 MW is part of a plan to manage our ageing fleet and bring stability back into the power system.”
To assist us in avoiding or reducing the stage of loadshedding, Eskom appealed to customers to continue to use electricity sparingly:
- Set air-conditioners’ average temperature at 23ºC
- Switch of your geysers over peak periods
- Use the cold water tap rather than using the geyser every time
- Set your swimming pool pump cycle to run twice a day, three hours at a time for optimal energy use.
- At the end of the day, turn off computers, copiers, printers and fax machines at the switch. Avoid stand-by or sleep mode.