Loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 1 from 23:00 until 05:00, and back to Stage 2 tomorrow
Sunday, 17 January 2021: Loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 1 from 23:00 tonight until 05:00. Regrettably, as the return to service of some generation units has been delayed, as well as the need to manage the emergency generation reserves and identified risks to the power system, Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented from 05:00 tomorrow morning. The system remains constrained and vulnerable, and Eskom will give a further update on the power situation tomorrow afternoon.
The return to service of two generation units at Kusile power station that were not available last week has been delayed due to difficulties in restarting the units, which are now expected to return to service starting tomorrow.
Over the past 24 hours Eskom teams have successfully returned a generation unit each at the Kriel, Grootvlei and Duvha power stations to service.
Despite Eskom’s stringent measures to manage the impact of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operations, we are experiencing some impact on operations, including our suppliers. For example at the Medupi power station we have had 48 positive cases out of a pool of 75 contractors, which has negatively affected our ability to executive work as planned.
We currently have 6 384MW on planned maintenance, while another 13 181MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned maintenance, breakdowns and the outage delays mentioned above. Eskom personnel are working hard to return as much of this capacity to service as soon as possible.
Eskom would like to urge the public to reduce electricity consumption in order to help us minimize loadshedding.
ENDS