After surprise stage 2 load shedding overnight, the electricity supply looked more stable on Friday morning.
Eskom announced load shedding last night, less than two hours before power was cut to some households, from 22:00 to 05:00 this morning. This came after three additional generation units broke down on Thursday, and Eskom started running low on diesel, which fuels emergency power generation.
Load shedding was suspended this morning, and Eskom spokesperson Dikatso Mothae told Jacaranda FM that the situation was “looking a bit better”. Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer told NewzroomAfrika that two of the three generating units were now restored.
Following a meeting of its emergency response command centre this afternoon, Eskom will announce the likelihood of load shedding for Friday and over the weekend.
This week, SA's power supply was running dangerously low after a number of Eskom's generating units failed over the weekend.
The utility resorted to emergency power generation by using open cycle gas turbines and pumped-storage hydroelectric plants.
These are very expensive ways of generating power, particularly the gas turbines, which require large quantities of diesel.
Find your load shedding schedule here.