Cape Town - Capetonians need to make sure to take out the candles and torches as they will also feel the impact of Eskom’s Stage 4 load shedding today.
The power utility said initially announced Stage 2 load shedding for the rest of the week, but later on said due to additional breakdowns of a unit at Medupi and two units at Duvha Power Station - together with the high winter demand - that it would move to Stage 4 today.
“Eskom regrets to inform the public that Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented from 14:00 this afternoon until 22:00 tonight,” a statement said on Wednesday.
“This is in order to ration the remaining emergency generation reserves, which have been depleted. These emergency reserves are required to respond to further emergencies in order to maintain the stability of the national grid. Thereafter Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented as previously communicated.“
Eskom said breakdowns currently total 15 087MW of capacity, while planned maintenance is 1 273MW of capacity.
The City of Cape Town then, after checking its generation capacity, announced that its customers will be on Stage 3 until 5pm, and then move to Stage 4 thereafter.
Eskom has announced load-shedding Stage 4 will be active from 14:00 - 22:00 today. It will then continue with Stage 2.
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) June 9, 2021
City-customers will have Stage 3 load-shedding between 14:00 and 17:00. From 17:00 to 22:00, City-customers will have Stage 4 load-shedding.#CTInfo pic.twitter.com/DImh3wxYN9
The City is able to generate additional capacity thanks to the help of the Steenbras Pumped Storage Plant.
Mayco member for energy and climate change Phindile Maxiti said the City has always built into its planning some additional reserve capacity that it generates through its Steenbras Hydro Pump Station to assist its customers during load shedding if required and if possible.
Maxiti said that this was especially necessary “during the daytime, when there is a higher impact on residents and businesses”.
“Then at night, the City recovers capacity to ensure that it can assist residents and businesses again during the higher economic impact daytime hours.”
Maxiti added: “This means sometimes City-supplied customers are the only ones in South Africa that do not have load shedding or that are on a lower level of load shedding than other metros or Eskom customers.”