Cape Town - While stage 6 load shedding was not confirmed to come into effect by Tuesday morning, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said the country would know by around 1pm in the afternoon.
“Stage 6 is not yet confirmed, however, we will assess as the day goes on.
“We expect 4 units to return today, it depends on how long those units take to return.
“While Stage 6 is not confirmed yet, the risk is high,” De Ruyter said during a media briefing on the situation at the crippled power utility.
Eskom Chief Operating Officer [COO] Jan Oberholzer said Stage 6 meant that electricity would be off for a period of 6 hours in the day.
“Stage 6 means if we are implementing Stage 6 load shedding over a period of 24 hours, you can expect at least 6 hours of load shedding during the day.
“It may be split by whoever is your supply authority, in batches of 2 hours, 2 hours, 2hours, or 3 hours, 3 hours, I don’t know.
“But typically you can expect not to have electricity available for a period of 6 hours over 24 hours.”
Oberholzer said the ongoing strike action had the potential to plunge the country into Stage 8.
The power utility would do whatever it could not to make that a reality.
Eskom further extended Stage 4 load shedding on Sunday, to run until at least Wednesday.
This, they said, was due to unlawful and unprotected labour action at a number of the power stations which caused delays in carrying out planned maintenance and repairs.
By Sunday Eskom had 3 894MW on planned maintenance, while another 15 472MW of capacity was unavailable due to breakdowns.
In addition to this, a further 600MW was unavailable due to a line fault in Mozambique that was experienced by the Hydroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB).
“Eskom continues to closely monitor the system, adjust and communicate any changes as may be necessary. We appeal to all South Africans to help limit the impact of the shortages by continuing to reduce the usage of electricity and to switch off all non-essential items.
We would like to remind the public that load shedding is implemented only as a last resort to protect the national grid. We therefore urge all South Africans to continue using electricity sparingly especially during these uncertain times on the power system,” it said.
Cape Times