Eskom CEO André de Ruyter conceded during a briefing on SA’s energy crisis on Sunday that “given the current performance of our coal fleet we cannot deny there is a risk” of going beyond stage 6 of load-shedding.

“There is a risk and we need to prepare for this risk and hence the urgent need to replenish our [emergency] reserves,” he said, adding there was a high likelihood of load-shedding continuing at stage 6 at the start of the week as diesel supplies needed to operate open cycle gas turbine peaking plants - and pumped storage scheme dam levels -  were replenished.

“We will definitely have a high stage of load-shedding this week,” he said.

Eskom executives said there had been numerous plant breakdowns during the past week and the power utility had made extensive use of its emergency reserves which were now at a critical level. Diesel supplies, which have to be trucked by tanker to peaking plants, would only be fully replenished later in the coming week. In addition, coal-fired power stations were being run “in the red” increasing the risk of further breakdowns.

They assured the nation load-shedding was being implemented to ensure the stability of the national power grid as teams worked around the clock to bring generating units back to service.

De Ruyter said there was no immediate indication that the latest blackouts were caused by sabotage.

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