Eskom plunges South Africa into darkness

South African power company Eskom has announced that the country will experience Stage 4 loadshedding from Monday 13:00 until 05:00 on Friday.

The surprise stage 4 comes a day after the stage was suspended on Sunday.

Read the full statement below:

Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented from 13:00 until 05:00 on Friday; thereafter Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented as_ previously communicated until 05:00 on Saturday Monday, 08 November 2021: Eskom regrets to inform the public that due to the ongoing generation capacity shortages, Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented from 13:00 until 05:00 on Friday. Thereafter Stage 2 loadshedding will continue as previously communicated until 05:00 on Saturday.
While Eskom regrets the escalation in loadshedding, it is necessary to ration the remaining emergency generation reserves, which have been utilised extensively this morning as we are not getting the reduction in demand as expected from the implementation of Stage 2 loadshedding. It was anticipated that an additional seven units would have returned to service by Monday, and this has not materialised. Further, a generating unit at Arnot power station tripped this morning, contributing to the shortages.

We remind customers that loadshedding is implemented as a last resort to maintain the stability of the power system regardless of the stage of loadshedding.

Total breakdowns currently amount to 14 874MW while planned maintenance is 5 579MW of capacity.

Eskom would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the implementation of loadshedding, and requests the public to reduce the usage of electricity in order to help us through the constraints.

Eskom will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the power system.