Cape Town - The City of Cape Town’s customers will be facing Stage 1 and Stage 2 load shedding this evening.
The City informed its customers after Eskom announced that Stage 2 load shedding would be implemented from 4pm today until 9pm.
The utility giant said a shortage of generation capacity, coupled with the severely cold weather in parts of the country, have forced the implementation of Stage 2 load shedding.
“Unfortunately, a generation unit each at Tutuka and Medupi Power Stations were forced offline this afternoon, increasing the capacity constraints on the power system.
“Further, a unit each at Medupi and Tutuka, that were expected to return to service this afternoon have now been delayed, further contributing to the shortages,” Eskom said in a statement.
It said breakdowns currently total 14 137MW while planned maintenance accounts for 2 924MW of capacity.
“Eskom regrets the inconvenience caused by these power constraints, and would like to urge the public to reduce the usage of electricity in order to help ease the pressure on the power system, and will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the performance of the system.”
The City then, after checking its generation capacity, announced how Cape residents would be affected.
The City said its customers would be experiencing Stage 1 from 4pm until 5pm, and thereafter move to Stage 2 from 5pm to 7pm.
The City said that it would provide updates later about the last two hours of load shedding.
Eskom has announced Stage 2 load-shedding from 16:00 today until 21:00.
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) July 22, 2021
Eskom customers: Stage 2.
City supplied: Stage 1 from 16:00 to 17:00, Stage 2 from 17:00 to 19:00
Updates to follow.
We often receive Eskom updates at short notice. #CTInfo pic.twitter.com/QTLaeZhm62