Home News Load-shedding will continue on Wednesday

Load-shedding will continue on Wednesday

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Eskom said the load-shedding was due to the continuing severe generation supply constraints as a result of multiple unit breakdowns at different power stations.

The cooling towers of the Lethabo Thermal Power Station, an Eskom coal-burning power station near Sasolburg in the northern Free State. Picture: Siphiwe Sibeko, Reuters

Eskom announced that it will continue with Stage 2 load-shedding on Wednesday from 8am until 10pm.

The power utility said this was due to the continuing severe generation supply constraints as a result of multiple unit breakdowns.

“Ten generation units at seven power stations suffered breakdowns in the past two days,” Eskom said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

“With the unreliable and aged generation infrastructure, together with a number of risks on running units, there is a high probability that additional stages of load-shedding may be implemented at short notice,” it warned.

A generator each broke down at Arnot, Medupi, Lethabo, Matla power stations, while two units each at Majuba, Camden and Tutuka power stations also broke down.

“This, together with the need to conserve emergency generation reserves, necessitated that load-shedding be implemented in order to protect the integrity of the system.

“Unplanned breakdowns amount to 11,425MW of capacity, adding to the 4,983MW currently out on planned maintenance”.

“We urge the people of South Africa to help reduce electricity usage in order to assist Eskom to reduce the instance of load-shedding,” Eskom stated.

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