Power utility Eskom seems unable to shake off the dark days, in a literal and figurative sense. After having implemented record loadshedding in 2020, it had to implement Stage 2 loadshedding just six days into 2021.
The power utility had taken a conservative decision to take offline unit 1 at the Koeberg nuclear power station earlier than planned as it experienced an increased leak rate at one of its steam generators. Just two days later, it announced that Stage 2 loadshedding would be implemented overnight.
Now into the second week of the year, Eskom has not changed its tune. It would implement Stage 2 until Sunday after two generating units at the Kusile power station tripped, it said in a statement on Thursday.