Eskom has pushed load shedding to stage 6 on Sunday as it continues to suffer breakdowns at its power stations. Stage 6 load shedding took effect from 04h16 on Sunday morning, it said, after a generation unit each at Kusile and Kriel power stations tripped. The power utility was forced to move to stage 5 load shedding on Saturday after the loss of five units.


A press briefing will be held at 10h00 to update on the situation. Earlier this week, Eskom’s chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said that the power grid is extremely vulnerable to breakdowns and that any load shedding schedules are subject to change at short notice.


The COO said that Eskom intends to ramp up maintenance in the coming summer months, which could lead to sporadic load shedding. He added that maintenance remains a big issue for the group, as it is not seeing the outcomes it expected. He said that as soon as some units are returned to operation following maintenance, they break down again soon after. He attributed the maintenance problems to a lack of appropriate skills and experience needed to address the issues.


The group recently published its load shedding outlook for the rest of the year, noting that it has to keep unplanned outages below 13,000MW to minimise rolling blackouts. In a more load shedding-heavy scenario, if outages remain above 14,500MW, stage 2 load shedding will be frequent for the foreseeable future. If the power utility is unable to keep outages under 16,000MW, load shedding at higher stages becomes the standard.


Stage 6 blackouts equate to at least six hours without power per day, possibly in two-hour cycles. The last time South Africans endured stage six power cuts was two years ago. The grid has been under pressure for the past week, with the power utility implementing rolling power cuts at short notice. This weekend, South Africans woke up to advanced power cuts with scheduled outages three times a day. Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said that stage 6 power cuts will persist, with heavy rolling blackouts expected for the week. He said that stage 6 would persist until sufficient generating units are returned to service.


"Looking ahead, stage six load shedding will remain implemented until sufficient generating units are returned to service and those levels have been replenished. We have not yet been able to make a firm commitment as to when we will be able to ease the current stage of load shedding. I can assure the public of South Africa that the system is monitored closely," Oberholzer said. Eskom said that its teams were working around the clock to avoid a total


system collapse by implementing stage 6 power cuts.


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