Eskom said on Tuesday that load-shedding was on the cards for the rest of the week.

The power utility announced stage 2 load-shedding from 9am on Tuesday.

“There have been delays in returning some generation units to service that were expected to return to service [on Monday],” Eskom said in a statement.

“They will now only return during the course of the week. This has put additional pressure on the system and necessitated a continuation of load-shedding.”

Eskom said that demand for electricity had increased since January.

The power utility provided several tips on how to save electricity:

• Take food out of the freezer for dinner and put it in the fridge to thaw, eliminating the need to defrost it later with a microwave oven.
• Set air conditioners to 23°C.
• Switch off geysers during peak periods.
• Unplug cellphone chargers before leaving the house. They use electricity, even if the phone is not plugged in.
• Use the cold water tap where possible rather than the hot water tap (the geyser).
• Set swimming pool pumps to run twice a day, three hours at a time.
• At the end of the day, turn off computers, copiers, printers and fax machines.