South Africans Brace for Severe Power Cuts

South Africans should brace for prolonged and even severe power cuts from this week as Eskom has warned of “some risks” ahead.

This follows a “very difficult week” during which Eskom shed and curtailed a combined more than 7 000MW for two consecutive nights during evening peak hours to protect the national grid from collapsing.

By Sunday, stage 6 load shedding was reduced to stage 4, a welcome reprieve and despite the power utility on Friday saying that stage 6 load shedding would be implemented continuously until further notice due to the breakdowns of a number of generation units.

Eskom’s head of generation, Thomas Conradie, said on Friday the ongoing high levels of unplanned breakdowns had posed a serious risk of pushing load shedding to stage 8.