Wednesday, 06 January 2021: Eskom would like to inform the public that Stage 2
loadshedding will be implemented between 22:00 and 05:00 tonight and on
Thursday night. The loadshedding is necessary in order to recover and preserve
the emergency generation reserves that have been utilised to support the system
during the week following the earlier than planned shutdown of Koeberg Unit 1
and other units whose return to service has been delayed.
We currently have 6 672MW on
planned maintenance, while another 12 073MW of capacity is unavailable due to
unplanned maintenance. Eskom teams are working around the clock to return as
many of these units to service as soon as possible.
Eskom
would like to urge the public to reduce electricity consumption in order to
help us minimize loadshedding. The system remains vulnerable and unpredictable.
Loadshedding is implemented as a last resort in order to protect the integrity
of the system.
As
previously communicated, Eskom continues to implement reliability maintenance
during this period, and thus the system will continue to be constrained and the
risk of loadshedding remains elevated. At the moment the equivalent of two
large power stations is out for planned maintenance, adding pressure to the
system.
Eskom
will communicate timeously should there be any significant changes to the power
system.
ENDS