Stage 2 load shedding for three hours to ease traffic: Eskom

Eskom says Stage 2 rotational load shedding will be halted daily from 6am until 9am this week in order to ease traffic congestion and allow people to get to work on time. Load shedding is set to continue until Thursday. The power utility says more load shedding is necessary as it has not been able to replenish diesel for its open cycle gas turbines.

Spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha says, “Load shedding Stage 2 will resume again until Thursday. Daily, there will be a break in load shedding between 6am and 9am in order to help ease the traffic congestion. Eskom really does apologise for this bout of load shedding and we urge the public to use electricity sparingly.”

Meanwhile, City Power in Johannesburg  says it will not be load shedding and has the capacity to offset the impact of this week’s stage-2 rotational load shedding.  Mangena says Johannesburg residents are not expected to be affected.

#POWERALERT 2
Date: 2 February 2020

Stage 2 rotational loadshedding will continue from 09:00 tomorrow until Thursday at 06:00, with respite between 06:00 to 09:00 each day, when possible@SABCNewsOnline @IOL @eNCA @ewnupdates @News24 @SowetanLIVE @TheSAnews @SAgovnews pic.twitter.com/hNv9ewXpMq

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) February 2, 2020

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena says Johannesburg residents are not expected to be affected.

“As City Power, we have noted the declaration by Eskom that it will load shed from Monday until Thursday on stage 2. Stage2 basically means that Eskom needs to save about 2000 Megawatts of electricity so as City Power, we are able with the extra capacity that we have to offset the amount Eskom is actually looking for.  So we won’t be load shedding unless anything changes and then we will communicate to our customers,” says Mangena.