Riyaz Patel
Eskom say Stage 2 load shedding will continue Thursday to prevent the power system from a total collapse.
The embattled power utility said it’s experiencing “severe generation capacity challenges.”
“In order to protect the power system from a total collapse or blackout and having taken into account all the recovery efforts currently being implemented, our prognosis for tomorrow (Thursday) is that stage 2 rotational load shedding will be implemented from 09:00 to 23:00,” Eskom acting CEO Jabu Mabuza said in a statement.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) said the power disruptions are “extremely unfortunate” as it coincides with the start of the matric exams.
“We are hopeful that the early warning will assist businesses including the Department of Education to plan accordingly,” Mabuza added.
Eskom pointed to five power-generating units that were not in use due to boiler tube leaks as reasons for the blackouts.
Mabuza said Wednesday night that some of these units were back in service.
Apart from those outages, the conveyor feeding coal from Exxaro’s Grootegeluk mine to the Medupi power station in Limpopo, broke down Saturday, the acting Eskom CEO said.
It’s still not working and Medupi is running at a third of its capacity. Coal is being manually fed to Medupi while Eskom looks for a permanent solution to the failure, Mabuza said.
