Cape Town - Eskom announced that it would implement stage 1 load shedding from 17:30 to 22:00 on Wednesday.
This is due to increased electricity demand and a shortage of generation capacity resulting from technical faults at some of our power station units, Eskom explained.
The risk of a total power blackout in South Africa at any point in future is “out of the question”, acting Eskom CEO Brian Molefe said on Wednesday.
“The prospect of a blackout is virtually non-existent,” he told reporters in Johannesburg during a briefing on the state of the power system.
AS IT HAPPENED: Molefe's ambitious winter plan for load shedding
He gave this assurance despite conceding that power plants were “ageing and volatile”, that cold weather had increased demand, and that maintenance would put strain on an already strained system.
Load shedding planner: GridWatch