The dreaded stage-six loadshedding, which kicked in at midday on Wednesday, will continue until 5am on Friday, Eskom said in a statement.
On Friday, stage six will be reduced to stage-five rolling power cuts until Saturday morning.
The power utility said the latest developments are due to the breakdown of several power generating units, as well as the delay in returning to capacity some of the units.
“The refueling and maintenance outrage starting tonight, as well as the long-term operation project of Unit 1 of the Koeberg nuclear power station, together with the October chimney failure that has forced three generation units offline at Kusile power station, will further reduce available generation capacity and exacerbate the occurrence of loadshedding over the next six to 12 months,” Eskom said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the loadshedding app Eskomsepush published interesting facts about the rolling blackouts experienced in 2022, showing that more than 7-million people downloaded the app. The Ask My Street feature is its added benefit, where more than 938 000 users are now registered.
According to the app, South Africans have had to suffer 192 720 minutes of loadshedding, that is 200% more than any other year. Stage six was also implemented for 83 hours this year. The app also shows that the most blackouts came full force in November, with 650 hours of loadshedding.
But with the way things are going in December, the statistics for November may be overtaken.
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