The dark days are over: Eskom officially suspends load shedding 

We feel as if we’ve stepped back in time what with the daily load shedding updates from Eskom. This time, however, we come bearing good news. After four days of non-stop power cuts, spanning Stages 2-6, Eskom has finally suspended load shedding, ending this week-long nightmare. For now, at least.

“Following the recovery of the generation capacity and replenishment of emergency reserves, load shedding will be suspended at 5:00 AM,” the power utility wrote in a post on X during the early hours of Wednesday morning. Eskom followed through on its promise, halting power cuts at 05h00 on the morning of 26 February.

Goodbye for now, load shedding. You won’t be missed

Eskom first implemented Stage 3 load shedding on Saturday without warning due to several unit trips at the Majuba and Medupi power stations. Within a few short hours, Eskom escalated the issue to Stage 6 thanks to even more trips, this time at the Camden power station. Eskom was quick to correct the errors, continually bumping the country down to Stage 4 on Monday, followed by a return to Stage 2 on Tuesday.

“We maintain our guidance that load shedding is largely behind us due to structural improvements in the generation fleet. Our focus remains on eliminating load shedding as a structural constraint on the economy,” said Eskom Group chief executive, Dan Marokane.

“There will be valuable lessons to be learned from the set of multiple unit trips that were unconnected and purely technical in nature related to electrical and control system issues within auxiliary parts of our power stations,” he continued.

Eskom went on to pat itself on the back a little harder than is perhaps necessary for the country’s sole electricity provider that has continually snatched power away from residents over the past four days.

At the time of writing, ongoing planned maintenance stands at 6,660MW “in alignment with [Eskom’s] summer period maintenance strategy, which is at increased levels in order to prepare for winter and meet license and regulatory requirements,” Marokane said. Eskom then reaffirmed its commitment to make sure that South Africans will not be subjected to the “severe” levels of load shedding previously seen in 2023.