South Africa is facing some of the coldest nights it’s seen in 2021 this week, with Johannesburg facing sub-polar winds and negative-count degrees on the thermometer. And while you’re queueing for gas for your heaters, make sure to throw in a pack of firewood as the country will face Stage 2 load shedding this evening, according to Eskom.
Announced an hour before the next stage of load shedding is slated to commence, Eskom published an official statement detailing why the country’s residents will face more outages during one of the country’s coldest days of the year so far.
Eskom’s frozen capacity
“Eskom regrets to inform the public that due to shortage of generation capacity, coupled with severely cold weather in parts of the country, Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented from 16:00 until 21:00 tonight,” the statement reads.
“Breakdowns currently total 14,137MW while planned maintenance is 2,924MW of capacity.”
The latest rolling blackout will commence at 16:00 on today 22 July and conclude at 21:00 on the same day. Brace for a cold, dark night ahead and download a load shedding notifier app.