Eskom confirms stage 4 load-shedding until Saturday morning

Eskom has announced stage 4 load-shedding until Saturday morning, hardly a day after the country moved from crippling stage 6 power cuts to a mix of stages 3 and 4.

The utility blamed the higher power cuts on “increasing demand combined with insufficient generating capacity and the need to manage the emergency reserves”.

In a statement, it said: “Stage 4 load-shedding will be implemented from 2pm today [Monday] until 5am on Saturday. Eskom will monitor the power system and communicate any changes to load-shedding should it be required.

“Unplanned outages slightly increased from 15,386MW to 15,424MW of generating capacity, while the capacity out of service for planned maintenance increased from 5,617MW to 6,280MW.”

Eskom’s load forecast for the evening peak demand is 28,123MW. In the past 24 hours, 500MW of generating capacity was taken offline while in the same period 600MW returned to service.

Eskom said it was anticipating the return of about 1,300MW generating capacity by Tuesday evening.

“Eskom teams are working tirelessly to ensure that these additional generating units are returned to service as soon as possible,” it said.

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