Eskom sent waves of frustration across the country when, seemingly out of the blue, the national electricity provider implemented stage 4 loadshedding.
Why did Eskom implement Stage 4 loadshedding?
In a brief statement posted on Twitter, the power utility revealed that escalated rotational blackouts were in effect from 05:30 “due to breakdowns of five generators at five power stations overnight.”
“The loadshedding will be implemented until further notice,” the state-owned power utility noted.
Readers from these metros can check the latest loadshedding schedule below:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
This bout of loadshedding comes a day after Eskom issued a power outage forecast for this week, where it was initially stated that blackouts would be kept between 16:00 and 00:00 at Stage 2.
“The loadshedding is required to help manage emergency generation reserves during the evenings. Eskom will publish a further update on Wednesday, or as soon as any further significant changes occur,” the statement read.
This time around, the utility’s announcement of Stage 4 loadshedding was not accompanied by detailed information on the current state of the power system.
The escalated rotational blackouts implemented on Tuesday morning will likely remain in place indefinitely.
This is a developing story.
