After 10 months of uninterrupted power, the nemesis of load shedding (Stage 3) will start today from 5pm and will continue over the weekend.
While repairs on units that broke down have started, the breakdowns may require extended repair times, which means load shedding could move to Stage 4.
This comes hours after the announcement that the National Energy Regulator South Africa had granted Eskom a 12.74% tariff increase for 2025/2026 that is set to come into effect on April 1.
Eskom’s Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane, said load shedding had to be initiated to protect the integrity of Eskom's power generation system.
"After more than 10 months of uninterrupted electricity supply due to the success of the Generation Recovery Plan, Eskom has issued an alert indicating a high risk of load shedding at short notice.
“This is a potentially temporary setback. Load shedding is largely behind us due to the structural improvements in our generation fleet. However, over the past seven days, we have experienced several breakdowns that require extended repair times.
"This has necessitated the use of all our emergency reserves, which now needs to be replenished. Consequently, we are closely monitoring the status of our current emergency reserves, and load shedding up to Stage 4 may be implemented over the weekend.” said Eskom Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane.