Eskom says it will continue stage two rolling blackouts on Saturday and Sunday. This is due to the continued shortage of generation capacity.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha says stage two rolling blackouts will again be implemented during the evening peak period of 16:00 to 00:00 on Saturday and Sunday.
“The capacity constraints have been exacerbated by the delay in returning a generation unit to service each at Koeberg, Kusile and Tutuka power stations, as well as the unplanned breakdowns of a generation unit each at Camden and Medupi, two at Hendrina and four units at Arnot power stations. Some generation units are anticipated to return to service over the next few days. This loadshedding will also assist in recovering emergency generation reserves, which have been utilised extensively to meet demand over the last few days.”
Sabotage warning
President Cyril Ramaphosa says government will move decisively against anyone who sabotages the power grid as his administration attempts to alleviate the high levels of rolling blackouts that the country has recently experienced. He made the comments during his address to the nation last week Monday on the energy crisis in South Africa.
Ramaphosa announced the establishment of a National Energy Crisis Committee involving the Department of Minerals and Energy, Public Enterprise, Environment, Treasury and Police to help deal with the energy problems the country has experienced.
The President says he has consulted widely in recent weeks on how to address the energy crisis.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address on the energy crisis:
