Stage 6 load shedding has returned to terrorize the country once again. Following a major breakdown across seven generating units yesterday, Eskom shoved the country to Stage 6 at 21:00 last night, with a return to Stage 4 at 05:00 this morning.
Kick those hopes right back down, though. The country has been condemned to Stage 6 every evening from 16:00 to 05:00 “until further notice”. And no, we won’t be free from load shedding’s shackles during the day. Stage 4 is filling in for stage 6 while it takes the afternoon off. Great.
Déjà vu
1/3
The implementation of loadshedding will be escalated to Stage 6 during the night, starting at 21:00 tonight until 05:00 on Wednesday morning. Stage 6 nightly loadshedding will then be implemented at 16:00 -05:00 until further notice
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) January 10, 2023
Read More: Here’s how SA is using UPS, inverter, and solar solutions during load shedding
Of those seven generating units out of service, only three have been fully repaired. On top of that, the repair of three other units has been delayed indefinitely. And just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, unit 1 of Matla power station was taken offline to repair a boiler tube leak.
It’s likely that we’ll be trapped in the clutches of Stage 6 for the foreseeable future. Eskom has said it needs to keep breakdowns below 13,000MW to stave off the worst of the load shedding. At present, Eskom is struggling to keep it below 16,000MW – with no return to 13,000MW in sight.
To find your new schedule, you can check them out right here. Or you could avoid visiting Eskom’s website entirely and just download the EskomSePush app.