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The City of Cape Town's website experienced difficulties loading as high volumes of consumers tried to access the load shedding schedules on Monday.
Eskom on Sunday reintroduced load shedding for the first time since December, following plant breakdowns.
The power utility implemented stage 2 load shedding from 09:00 on Monday morning. By midday, Eskom announced that it would implement stage 4 load shedding as it had unexpectedly lost six generating units, Fin24 previously reported.
Stage 2 load shedding allows for up to 2 000 MW to be cut from the national grid, while stage 4 load shedding allows for up to 4000 MW to be cut from the grid.
This is not the first time Eskom has implemented stage 4 load shedding. Spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe told journalists that the last time Eskom had a 4 000 MW shortfall was in the 2014/15 financial year, but at the time it was grouped under the stage 3 load shedding description for a shortfall of between 3 000 MW and 4 000 MW.
"The current definition was implemented in 2010, where each stage was a standalone," he said.
Load shedding is expected to continue up until 22:00 on Monday.
Meanwhile various municipalities have posted links for consumers to access schedules to see when the areas they live in will be affected.
The City of Cape Town's page with schedules had been crashing intermittently throughout the day. The media office confirmed that the website was experiencing high traffic volumes.
"[We] are working to ensure that it remains accessible," the media office responded via email.
City of Cape Town's page for load shedding schedules had trouble loading on Monday.
Eskom has a debt burden of R420bn, and last week President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the power utility would be split into three entities – generation, transmission and distribution – in an effort to make it operationally and financially sustainable.
Government will also support Eskom's balance sheet, and the details are to be announced by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni when he delivers the National Budget on February 20, Fin24 reported.
Phasiwe told Fin24 that Eskom's management would be meeting to get feedback from power stations on the status of the generating units. He also confirmed that the Department of Public Enterprises would be meeting with Eskom's board to address the load shedding situation.
