Johannesburg - Eskom will shut a 930-megawatt unit at its Koeberg nuclear power station for three months to perform regular maintenance, the utility told 702 Talk Radio on Monday.
Cash-strapped Eskom has implemented rolling blackouts for six straight days due to tight electricity supplies caused by ailing infrastructure and technical faults.
Eskom said on its Twitter feed there was a 50-percent chance of more power cuts on Monday.
“Any unexpected changes on an already constrained power system could result in load-shedding,” Eskom said in a tweet.
The electricity grid will remain severely constrained for the rest of week, the power utility said in a statement on Sunday.
Eskom is struggling to keep the lights on after the country failed to invest adequately in generation in the 20 years after the first democratic elections in 1994, even as the government expanded supply to an extra seven million people.
An average of 29 percent of Eskom’s installed capacity of 41 995 megawatts has been out of service since the start of the year due to breakdowns or planned maintenance, according to data compiled by Bloomberg using information provided by the utility twice weekly.
Eskom removed 2 000 megawatts from the electricity grid from 8am until 10.10pm on Sunday.
Reuters and Bloomberg