Eskom has announced that it has implemented stage three load shedding due to 'a further reduction in generation capacity'.
On Wednesday, the power utility said unit 3 at Majuba power station had an ash conveyer belt which was stuck and at Duvha, unit 2 tripped on Tuesday night due to a technical fault.
Work continued at Koeberg which experienced a fault on Sunday.
On Monday, Eskom said the power grid was under pressure after one of Koeberg's 900MW units was taken out of service because of a technical fault.
"The unit is expected to be at full capacity by the end of the week. The same unit is due for planned outage on 9 February 2015 and will be returned to service again in May," the power utility said at the time.
Eskom said it would continue to provide regular updates on the status of the power system.
Higher power prices
South Africa's energy regulator said on Wednesday it has given Eskom the go-ahead to charge consumers more for power to recoup the extra diesel costs it has incurred while running gas turbines to cope with electricity demand.
Thembani Bakula, a senior official at the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) told Reuters consumers will pay more for electricity in the 2016/2017 financial year, which starts in April, but the authority was still calculating the exact amount of the increase.
In November, NERSA granted Eskom a 12.69 percent tariff increase which comes into effect in April but the utility has said the amount was insufficient to cover its 225 billion rand ($19.7 billion) funding shortfall.
"In this financial year, we have spent more on diesel than we anticipated and we have been able to show and convince the regulator as to how we exceeded our budget," Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said on Wednesday.
The cash-strapped utility is also struggling to generate enough cash to service the debt it needs to pay for the completion of new power stations.
Weighing on business
Business confidence in South Africa registered its slowest start for the year in nearly two decades, a survey showed on Thursday, as the economy grapples with global and local headwinds including electricity shortages.
Business confidence in Africa's most advanced economy edged up to 89.3 in January from 88.3 in December, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) said.
But the level was the lowest January print since 1997 and "does not project an improved state of affairs for the business mood in 2015", SACCI said in a statement.
South Africa's economy is expected to grow by 2.5 percent this year from an earlier estimate of 3.2 percent, the Treasury said in October.
Current electricity constraints could further strain growth. Power utility Eskom has warned that rolling blackouts would become an almost daily occurrence over the next three years as it battles to meet demand.
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