Durban - Eskom has announced that it would implement Stage 2 loadshedding in the early hours of Wednesday morning to accommodate the release of matric results. The load shedding was scheduled to commence from 1am to 6am on Wednesday.
The power utility said in order to minimise the impact of the loadshedding on South Africans, it was implementing loadshedding between 1am and 6am to maximise the availability of electricity during the day.
"Owing to a loss of additional generation capacity, emergency reserves had to be extensively utilised to supplement capacity during the day.
"These now need to be replenished to meet tomorrow’s electricity demand. The system remains constrained and unpredictable with breakdowns," it said.
In order to give matriculants an opportunity to receive their matric results, the implementation of Stage 2 loadshedding has been delayed to 1am on Wednesday morning.
"This decision will also allow the matriculants enough time to make their way home safely."
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During the release of the matric results in Midrand on Tuesday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga warned matric pupils who will be out in their numbers in anticipation for their matric results, to be careful as Eskom would be implementing load shedding from 1am.
Excited matric pupils are known to flood the streets in anticipation for their matric results, milling about at petrol stations for newspapers.
Meanwhile, in order to plan their activities, Eskom customers can check their loadshedding schedules on the Eskom website (loadshedding.eskom.co.za) or through the customer contact centre on 0860037566.
"Our teams continue to work tirelessly to return units back from planned and unplanned outages. Owing to inadequate maintenance over a number of years, the system remains vulnerable to unplanned outages. We, however, remind customers that loadshedding is an essential and controlled measure to protect the power system from a total collapse or blackout," the utility concluded.
Eskom urged customers to reduce demand as a concerted collective effort can help to avoid or reduce lessen the level of loadshedding.