Like a rash that won’t go away, Eskom announced late last night that it was ramping up to Stage 6 load shedding ‘until further notice’. But, if you’ve got ESP, you probably knew that already.
According to the utility, this results from a whopping eight breakdowns in generation units across the country on Sunday afternoon. Arnot, Hendrina, and Majuba power stations have each suffered the loss of one generating unit while two units at Camden were taken offline after breaking down.
No ointment for load shedding
A unit at Lethabo also suffered a breakdown on Sunday, bringing the number of offline units up to three with the remaining three operating at minimum capacity. Eskom blames heavy rain in the area as the culprit saying the New Vaal mine hasn’t been able to provide enough coal.
As it stands, Eskom has lost 21,243MW of generating capacity to breakdowns and 3,566MW to planned maintenance.
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If the situation doesn’t improve, the remaining three units at Lethabo are at risk of shutdown as well. However, a quick glance at the area’s weather forecast predicts clear skies for the next few days, meaning there’s a chance we might be saved from higher load shedding stages. If nothing else goes wrong, that is.
You can expect an update if “any significant changes occur”. At the rate things are going, that seems more likely than not. You better make sure all your devices are charged.