Cape Town - Load shedding for those who receive their power from the City of Cape Town will only begin at 6pm this evening, and its customers will only be on Stage 1.
Just before 11am on Friday morning, Eskom announced that it would be implementing Stage 2 load shedding due to a power unit at Lethabo and Majuba power stations that were delayed in returning to service, and a unit at Tutuka power station that tripped.
“Three Kendal units were taken off and it is anticipated that the fourth and remaining unit will also be shut down,” Eskom added.
“The conveyor belts supplying these units are currently not running due to a power fault. No coal is reaching the station at this point.
“We unfortunately do expect the load shedding stage to escalate into the weekend but this can only be confirmed once we have a better understanding of these problems and when it is likely to be resolved,” it said.
Three Kendal units were taken off and it is anticipated that the fourth and remaining unit will also be shut down. The conveyor belts supplying these units are currently not running due to a power fault. No coal is reaching the station at this point.
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) November 5, 2021
After the announcement, the City of Cape Town said that its customers will only be load shed from 6pm onwards.
Stage 1 will be in place from 6pm until 10pm, and thereafter Stage 2 from 10am until 5am on Saturday morning.
The City of Cape Town added that updates will follow, in light of further power cuts expected this weekend.
Load-shedding update:
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) November 5, 2021
City customers will not have load-shedding today until 18:00!
The City continues to protect its customers where possible.
Tonight, 5 November 2021
Stage 1 from 18:00 until 22:00
Stage 2 from 22:00 until 05:00, 6 November
Updates will follow.#CTInfo pic.twitter.com/6sowycz9nG
Recently, the City of Cape Town lashed out at the power supplier after it kept escalating load shedding. The City said then that the current amount of load shedding was “simply unsustainable”.
“This amount of load shedding is simply unsustainable to our residents and businesses and the South African economy as a whole. The lack of leadership from national government on the urgent changes required in the energy regime is a blow to all South Africans.
“As a well-run city, investment and maintenance in infrastructure is critical to ensure that assets such as the Steenbras scheme and gas turbines can be used to assist where possible,” the City said.
It added that since September 2020, the municipality had protected its customers through the use of the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme and, to a lesser extent, its gas turbines for a total of 457 hours or an equivalent of about 19 full days.
The Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme enables the City to shield its customers from at least one stage of load shedding.