Here’s why load shedding has increased to STAGE 3 this weekend

Stage 3 load shedding will be in place for the rest of the weekend, and more power cuts are due over the next seven days. What's gone wrong?

Sep 9, 2022 - 15:13
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Here’s why load shedding has increased to STAGE 3 this weekend

Oh joy. Eskom are back at it with their increased load shedding antics. Not content with inflicting a miserable round of Stage 2 outages upon us all, the firm has announced that STAGE 3 cuts will now be with us right through until Monday morning.

load shedding stage 3
Stage 3 load shedding will be implemented this weekend – Photo: Flickr

Here’s our new load shedding schedule for Friday 9 September

On Tuesday, South Africa was plunged into darkness once more, and 74 hours of rolling blackouts were forecast. Sadly, that proved to be a conservative estimate. Stage 3 will now take place from 14:00 on Friday afternoon.

There’s no respite for the whole weekend. It will be a constant barrage of Stage 3 load shedding. Only on at 5:00 on Monday will things improve, but even then, South Africans can expect a period of Stage 2 load shedding through to the end of next week. Harrowing, really…

Load shedding intensifies for the weekend – but why?

Eskom ended losing another FIVE generational units on Friday morning, condemning the country to intermittent energy outages. Three units at Tutuka, and another two at Kusile have done most of the damage. The utility also has a nuclear headache to deal with.

Unit 2 at Koeberg Power Plant has also failed to return to service on time, heaping more pressure on the ailing national grid. A total of almost 22 000 MW remains offline. Eskom plan to brief the media on Monday about these matters. Until then, we’re literally and metaphorically in the dark,

“Due to the loss of an additional five generating units this morning, Stage 3 load shedding will be implemented from 14:00 on Friday to 5:00 on Monday. Thereafter, Stage 2 will be implemented continuously.”

“Additional load shedding is required to manage and recover emergency reserves, which have been used extensively over the past five days. Eskom therefore urges all South Africans to use electricity sparingly” | Eskom statement

You can read the full statement from Eskom here: