Eskom has assured South Africans that there is no imminent threat of a national blackout as the power utility introduces the highest level of
load-shedding.
The cash-strapped electricity provider has introduced stage four load-shedding after at least six generators went offline.
It’s the first time in nine years that Eskom has introduced stage four load-shedding.
Stage four load-shedding means that 4 000 megawatts of power needs to be removed from the grid. Load-shedding is being implemented nationwide and will continue until 10 pm this evening.
Eskom Spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe says, “We have now moved from stage two to stage four and this is a result of a number of breakdowns that we are experiencing at our power stations … We are urging our customers and electricity users in general to check their schedules and their suppliers and other municipalities and Eskom. But moving to stage four essentially means that you are going to have a bigger number of people going to be affected because of higher load shedding that we are implementing.”
Eskom’s website appears to have crashed as people try to log on to get details of load-shedding.
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