Dark Saturday with Eskom

Cape Town. 201114. Power utility Eskom has confirmed that stage one of load shedding has started. Stage one allows for up to 1000 MW of the national load to be shed. This is the third time the utility has implemented load shedding this year. Eskom earlier said it was looking into reports of another weakness found at one of its coal silos at the Majuba Power Station.The utility has been experiencing problems since the collapse of a silo at the power station in Mpumalanga earlier this month. Picture Leon Lestrade. Story Wendyl Martin

Cape Town. 201114. Power utility Eskom has confirmed that stage one of load shedding has started. Stage one allows for up to 1000 MW of the national load to be shed. This is the third time the utility has implemented load shedding this year. Eskom earlier said it was looking into reports of another weakness found at one of its coal silos at the Majuba Power Station.The utility has been experiencing problems since the collapse of a silo at the power station in Mpumalanga earlier this month. Picture Leon Lestrade. Story Wendyl Martin

Published Dec 6, 2014

Share

Johannesburg – Stage three power cuts would continue across the country until 10pm on Saturday, Eskom said.

“We have introduced stage three load shedding. It started at 8am this morning and will go on until 10pm this evening,” spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said.

This was due to depleted water and diesel reserves, and technical problems at its power stations. Two generators also required urgent maintenance.

He said Eskom needed to build up the power supply, and was confident the generators would be running by Saturday evening.

The power utility said it would revert to stage two power cuts around the country on Sunday from 8am until 10pm.

Stage one allowed for up to 1000MW of the national load to be shed, stage two for up to 2000MW and stage three for up to 4000MW.

Phasiwe urged Eskom customers to visit its website to check the schedules for the different areas. – Sapa

Related Topics: