Eskom likely to downgrade load shedding to stage three tonight: Gordhan

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says Eskom is likely to downgrade load shedding to stage three tonight and move to stage two for the rest of the week.

This follows the power utility’s announcement of the implementation of stage four load shedding, which started at midday today.

Eskom says this was due to a shortage of generation capacity and units tripping at several power stations. No load shedding is expected over the weekend.

Gordhan was speaking during a virtual media briefing.

“What we can now tell you as a result of intensive discussions is that it is expected that the system will be downgraded from level 4 load shedding to level three. Then over tomorrow and Friday, a few more thousand units will be put back onto the system which will result in a downgrade from level 3 to level 2. Over the weekend, I am told by Eskom management, it (load shedding) will stop. ”

Analyst concerned by recent load shedding

Energy analyst Chris Yelland has expressed deep concern over the state of the country’s power system.

“I think there is every reason to be deeply concerned about the state of the power system in SA. The old plant is getting older every year. The new plant is performing poorly like the old plant. The new generation capacity is not coming on stream fast enough from the public processes. The President announced the so-called risk mitigation IPP programme and since that, not a single kilowatt of new generation capacity has come onto the grid from the public procurement process. This is just too slow and it is not good enough.”

Yelland talks about the negative effects of load shedding on the economy: