Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has confirmed that Eskom will implement Stage 3 loadshedding over the weekend.
Ramokgopa explained that two of Eskom’s best-performing power stations, Matimba and Lethabo, experienced multiple failures at the beginning of the week.
Additionally, several other units faced delays in returning to service.
According to Ramokgopa, this led to Eskom exhausting its power reserves, preventing the utility from maintaining its usual operational benchmarks.
He stated that while Eskom strives to keep the lights on, it should not be at the expense of its reserves.
“Of course, it is a sad situation. We would have wanted a record where we say it is a year without loadshedding,” he said.
Despite this setback, he remained optimistic about Eskom’s overall performance.
“The trendline is still in the right direction. If you look at the summer outlook, we did make a point that once we breach over 13 000 MW of unplanned loss capacity—or, in fact, if we are within that 13 000 and below—we shouldn’t be having loadshedding.
“So, if you see the performance now, we are close to that. That is why I am saying that ordinarily, we shouldn’t be having loadshedding,” said Ramokgopa.
He added that loadshedding in South Africa has now become an extraordinary occurrence, and he aims to keep it that way.
Announcing Stage 3 loadshedding, Ramokgopa said this measure would help restore stability and return to a period without power cuts.
Dan Marokane, Eskom Group CEO, revealed that the power cuts will be in effect from Friday at 5pm.
He said they realised that avoiding loadshedding this weekend would mean that Eskom would have run out of energy by next week.
“Our overall availability is still high but we need to create this space for unexpected breakdowns, as they do happen in this case.
“This is well within the forecast that we shared for the summer plan, it has materialised to an extent and our forecast and our teams are quite disappointed around this fact but have concluded that our approach is to return these units back into operation,” said Marokane.
