State owned power utility, Eskom, has announced that it will implement Stage four load shedding from midday today (Wednesday) until the early hours of Friday morning.

Then, load shedding will drop to Stage two until the next morning.

The power utility has been battling to keep the lights on as a result of trips and shutdowns at units at five power stations which are costing the grid nearly 15 000MW in power.

“Over the past 24 hours a unit each at Medupi, Kusile and Matla power stations tripped while a unit each at Lethabo and Arnot power stations were forced to shut down.  This constrained the power system further requiring extensive use of emergency reserves and therefore, hampering the recovery of these reserves.

“We remind customers that load shedding is implemented as a last resort to maintain the stability of the power system regardless of the stage of load shedding.  The implementation of Stage 4 load shedding is therefore, no cause for alarm as the power system remains to be effectively controlled,” Eskom said.

The entity added that some recovery is already taking place with units already back on or returning over the next two days.

“Some generating units have returned to service and we anticipate another two units to return to service during the day. In addition, Koeberg Unit 1 is expected to return to service today and begin ramping up to full output within 48 hours.”

Source: South African Government News Agency