Power utility Eskom says that stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 09h00 on Tuesday (8 November) and run until further notice.
This follows further breakdowns at its power stations, along with delays in returning other units back to service.
The group had initially planned to only implement load shedding during the evening peak and overnight to help boost reserves.
Eskom has consistently warned that load shedding stages and schedules can change at short notice, as its generation fleet is largely unpredictable.
As South Africa suffer through the worst year of load shedding on record, the embattled power utility has placed the blame on a host of issues at the company – but most of all, its ageing fleet of power stations.
A deep dive done by Daily Investor, however, has countered this claim, finding that Eskom’s oldest power stations are, in fact, more efficient and more available than the group’s newer stations.
Earlier this week, Eskom notified the public that one of its units at the ‘new’ Kusile power stations experienced a fault and would likely be out of commission for a few months – joining other problems at the station and others at Medupi – the other ‘new’ station in the fleet.
Instead of an ageing fleet, Daily Investor said, Eskom’s real problem lies in a lack of technical and expert skills needed to keep the power stations going. This has occurred because of a concerted effort from the group and the government at large to implement affirmative action and BEE practices that have kicked out most of the skills.
According to Sunday reports, however, state-owned companies, including Eskom, may now be able to shake off these strict requirements, at least when it comes to procurement and other parts of the business due to changes in the affiliated regulations.
Schedules
For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town (PDF)
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.
