No foul play suspected in latest breakdowns as Eskom moves load-shedding to stage 2

Eskom says its system remains constrained as it is experiencing breakdowns and this could lead to a change in the load-shedding schedule this week, which is now at stage 3.

Group COO Jan Oberholzer said the system does not have capacity to generate enough power due to 42 generation units tripping last week, leading to a loss of 24,000MW.

Oberholzer said 37 units have since been returned.

Stage 3 load-shedding has been implemented from 5am on Monday and will continue until midnight.

The country will move to stage 2 from 5am on Tuesday until midnight on Friday.

“We may change [the load-shedding plan] at short notice should we see breakdowns. We do not have enough capacity to do maintenance but Eskom is doing what it can so that capacity is added to the system,” said Oberholzer at a media briefing.

He said there is no evidence that any of the breakdowns were as a result of sabotage.

“We currently have 5,200MW on planned maintenance. We have a system that is unreliable and unpredictable. That is unfortunately the situation we find ourselves in.

“We unfortunately have to implement load-shedding when our system is challenged. I believe we have a competent team to attend to this problem.”

He urged South Africans to continue using electricity sparingly. 

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