Eskom said stage 2 load-shedding, which was implemented at 6.12pm on Monday to protect the national power grid, will be suspended at 5am on Tuesday.

However, Eskom warned there is the possibility more load-shedding is likely to be implemented during this week should the generation capacity deteriorate further.

The sudden power cuts on Monday evening came after unit 5 of the Medupi power station tripped, adding to the current supply constraints and reducing available generation capacity by a further 700MW.

“This, together with four generation unit breakdowns earlier today, necessitated the implementation of load-shedding. Eskom is working hard to return as many of these generation units to service as possible. Load-shedding will be suspended at 05:00 tomorrow,” the power utility said. 

It predicted a week of constrained supply ahead. 

“Today one generating unit at Kriel power station, as well as two generating units at Camden power station experienced breakdowns.

“Furthermore, a generating unit at Tutuka power station is delayed returning to service, contributing to the current shortage of capacity,” Eskom said.

It said the two generation units that had broken down at Matla power station returned to service on Monday night.

“These, however, will take some time to reach full generation output. We currently have 4,804MW on planned maintenance, while another 14,759MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned breakdowns. We are managing the emergency generation reserves to limit the stage of load-shedding.”

Eskom said the overnight load-shedding will be used to replenish the dam level at the pump storage power stations in preparation for Tuesday.

“Eskom would like to apologise for the implementation of load-shedding and would like to reiterate that load-shedding is implemented only as a last resort in order to protect the national grid. We will communicate should there be any significant changes to the supply situation.”

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