Power utility Eskom has announced that Stage 3 load shedding will be implemented from Friday, 31 January, and will continue throughout the weekend.
The return of rolling blackouts follows what Eskom describes as a “perfect storm” of technical failures and maintenance delays, leading to severe strain on the national grid.
On Friday, Eskom issued an alert warning that power cuts could escalate to Stage 4 at short notice. However, it has since confirmed that Stage 3 will take effect immediately.
The utility reported multiple breakdowns at key power stations, forcing it to rely heavily on emergency reserves. By Friday, these reserves had been depleted, necessitating immediate load shedding to prevent further risk to the system.
At a State of the System briefing, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa acknowledged that despite ten months without load shedding, setbacks were inevitable. He reiterated that Eskom and the government had always maintained that the energy crisis was not fully resolved.
Factors Behind the Load Shedding:
- Planned maintenance took several units offline.
- Six additional units at key power stations broke down, with five still offline.
- Delays in bringing other units back online exacerbated the situation.
- Eskom has been heavily dependent on Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs).
- Emergency reserves have been exhausted and need replenishing.
“We were under the impression that load shedding was behind us, but we have to protect the integrity of the system,” said Ramokgopa. “It’s disappointing to all of us, but the trendline is in the right direction.”
Eskom stated that efforts to restore power generation capacity would continue over the weekend, with breakdowns currently exceeding 13,000MW—falling within the scenarios outlined in its summer outlook.