Cape Town – South Africans should prepare for more power cuts as Eskom confirmed that it will continue implementing load shedding today.
It has been a trying weekend for South Africans, with power outages hitting homes and businesses across the country from Thursday evening.
Stage 2 load shedding was implemented from 9am until 11pm last night and will continue today.
“The probability of load shedding remains high for the week as a result of a shortage of capacity.
‘‘This morning (Sunday) we stated that Stage 2 load-shedding will be
implemented until 23:00, however due to the vulnerability and low level of reliability of the system, we have lost additional units during the course of the day, resulting in unplanned breakdowns increasing to 12 000MW as at 19:00.
“The additional loss of units, required an increase in the usage of diesel and water at our open cycle gas turbines and pumped storage schemes respectively, in order to supplement capacity.
‘‘Regrettably, as a result we have been unable to conserve water and diesel as required to stop or to minimise loadshedding for the coming week,” said Eskom.
“We remind customers that loadshedding is a responsible act to prevent a national blackout.
‘‘The load shedding is required all day tomorrow (Monday) to cater for further trips and to create capacity to replenish water reserves for our pumped storage schemes.
‘‘Sufficient water and diesel reserves are necessary to limit the level of loadshedding in the week,” said Eskom.
Meanwhile, the City has advised consumers to ensure that cellphones, laptops, tablets and radios are
fully charged when power is
available.
They advised the public to fill up, as most petrol stations are unable to pump fuel during power outages.