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Johannesburg - Eskom implemented stage two rolling power cuts on Tuesday to help bolster power supply for the rest of the week, acting CEO Dan Marokane said.
"We moved to stage two in order to manage our reserves at our pumped storage schemes and gas turbines so that we can better manage the rest of the week," Marokane said in a statement.
Eskom began with stage one rotational power cuts on Tuesday morning, but later escalated to stage two. This would continue until 22:00.
Stage one allows for up to 1 000MW of the national load to be cut, stage two for up to 2 000MW, and stage three for up to 4 000MW.
READ: Power supply tight for rest of summer
Eskom said the intensified power cuts were necessary because of a shortage of generation capacity.
"At our pumped storage schemes [which use water to generate electricity], the dam levels are low because we were not able to pump the water back to full capacity over the weekend," it said on Tuesday afternoon.
This was because Eskom had to use its pumped storage schemes over the weekend to meet demand.
"Ordinarily, the weekends are used to pump our dam levels to maximum capacity in preparation for the forecasted increased demand in electricity during the week."
Earlier, Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger warned there was a good chance of power cuts.
"The grid is exceptionally tight. There is a medium to high chance of load shedding today [Tuesday] if we do see further technical challenges developing."
Shortly after 09:00 the power utility tweeted: "Eskom will implement load shedding stage one from 10:30 today. It is likely to continue until 22:00. We will give updates throughout the day".
Etzinger said 25% of Eskom's generator capacity was out because of technical problems.
"We won't go to stage three unless it is absolutely necessary."
