Eskom escalates rolling blackouts to stage 6
Eskom has confirmed it will be ramping up load shedding to stage 6 from Tuesday afternoon.
The power utility has blamed striking workers for its decision to escalate the dreaded power cuts from stage 4 to stage 6.
Stage 6 will be implemented from 4pm to 10pm on Tuesday, whereafter power cuts will be reduced to stage 4 from 10pm until midnight.
Load shedding will then be reduced to stage 2 from midnight on Tuesday until 5am on Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday, the power cuts will be ramped up to stage 4 again from 5am to 4pm.
Stage 6 will make a return from 4pm to 10pm.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha says this is all due to the illegal strike which has disrupted opeations at some power plants.
“This has compelled Eskom to continue taking precautionary measures to conserve generation capacity and safeguard plant from damage. There is a high risk that the stage of loadshedding may have to change at any time, depending on the state of the plant.”
The embattled utility is currently running at 3 218MW on planned maintenance, while another 17 621MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
Mantshantsha says three of the 10 generation units that had tripped during the night have been returned to service.
“This, however, is still insufficient to stave off the implementation of stage 6 load shedding for this evening and tomorrow evening.”
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