Eskom has warned of a heightened risk of load shedding on Thursday evening.
In a power update, the utility said that while it has sufficient generating capacity for the day, it may need to institute rotational power cuts in the evening to let it replenish its emergency water and diesel reserves.
It said it is currently using diesel generators to meet demand, in part due to delays in some generating units coming back online.
Unplanned outages were at 13 063MW at 06:30 on Thursday morning, still above the utility's goal of 9 500MW.