Cape Town – The City of Cape Town said there will only be three hours of stage 1 load shedding today and then its customers will be spared load shedding.
Power utility Eskom has announced that it would implement stage 1 load shedding from 5pm on Monday afternoon until 10pm, but it also warned South Africans to brace for more power cuts this week.
Eskom said it was implementing load shedding due to further breakdowns and delays in returning generating units to operation.
Eskom spokesperson Sikhonathi Mantshantsha apologised to South Africans in a statement and said the power cuts were due to breakdowns at two power stations, while units that were expected to return to service at three other power stations were experiencing delays.
“Eskom regrets to announce that that it will implement stage 1 load shedding due to the loss of two generation units at Kusile and one each at Kendal and Tutuka power stations. These constraints have been exacerbated by delays in returning a unit each – at Kusile, Duvha and Matla power stations – to operation.
“Breakdowns currently total 15 570MW of capacity, while planned maintenance is 1 270MW of capacity.
“The likelihood of load shedding is high for the rest of the week as the power system remains constrained and vulnerable. Eskom will communicate promptly should there be any changes.”
The City of Cape Town then announced that it would have load shedding from 5pm to 7pm tonight and the power cuts would cease.
City to provide some protection from load-shedding tonight.
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) June 7, 2021
Eskom has announced load-shedding Stage 1 will be active from 17:00 to 22:00 tonight.
City-customers will have Stage 1 load-shedding between 17:00 and 19:00. Load-shedding will then end for City-customers.#CTInfo pic.twitter.com/TdzYz5l8Hy
City of Cape Town customers can see if they are being affected by power cuts here: