Eskom says stage two load shedding will continue on Monday as the power utility battles with low coal reserves and break downs at various power stations across the country.
Eskom says bad maintenance at its power stations has resulted in a number of generating units being out of service.
The utility is also battling to find coal suppliers after their previous contracts ended.
Eskom deputy spokesperson Dikatso Mothae says load shedding is expected to continue well into 2019.
“The main issues really are that our power stations are not operating optimally. We have seen quite a lot of breakdowns there. And the other issue not completely related to the current load shedding is that our coal stock levels remain below the minimum required grid code level.”
“We’ve had difficulties in finding [coal] suppliers that will offer us the coal at the price that we’re able to afford. There is a high risk that we will have to load shed through December… in fact the system is going to remain constrained at least until March 2019, where we will start [to see] an improvement as the recovery plan is put in place,” adds Mothae.
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