Word has come down from on high — South Africa goes to Stage 6 load shedding as of 12:00 today. Early this morning, the country went back to Stage 4 thanks to additional breakdowns overnight. Seems that it’s not about to get any better.
Stage 6. Really?
Stage 6 loadshedding will be implemented from 12:00 until further notice. This is due to a high number of breakdowns since midnight, as well as the requirement to strictly preserve the remaining emergency generation reserves. Eskom will publish a full statement in due course.
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) December 7, 2022
According to Eskom, there’s a more extensive statement coming shortly but it’ll all work out to the same thing. The state power utility is attempting to keep the grid from collapsing. Part of this involves conserving energy reserves.
There’s no timeline for when South Africa will get out of this latest descent into Stage 6’s depths. At the moment, however, it’s looking like that holiday break the country was expecting is in jeopardy.