Cape Town - Eskom announced on Thursday that it would implement stage 1 load shedding from 17:00 to 22:00.
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"The power system is currently constrained and under pressure because of the increased demand in electricity as a result of the current cold front and a shortage of generating capacity as some of our power station units are currently on maintenance.
"As a result, Eskom will implement stage 1 load shedding from 17:00 today, which is likely to continue until 22:00 this evening.
"As the weather is quite cold at the moment, we would like to appeal to our customers to find alternative ways of keeping warm and using electricity sparingly throughout the day.
"Eskom would like to assure customers that load shedding is implemented as a necessary measure to protect the power system and to ensure that maintenance is carried out in order to guarantee that our supply of electricity can be maintained in the long term.
"Any unexpected changes on the vulnerable and constrained power system could lead to a change in the load shedding stage at short notice," Eskom said in a statement.