With all the Eskom striking workers having returned to work, the power utility announced that stage four loadshedding would be implemented on Friday and lower stages would be implemented over the weekend.
Eskom said it would still need to implement loadshedding for the foreseeable future until the situation gets back to normal again.
On Thursday, the embattled power utility said since its last communication, seven generation units have been restored. During the same period six generation units collapsed during the protest action and had to be taken offline for repairs.
“This is made possible by the full return to work of all striking employees over the past two days. In a addition, 600MWof capacity from the Hydroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB) in Mozambique was returned to service, boosting available generation capacity,” it said.
The power utility said it expects nine generation units to get back to service over the next few days, which will further improve the capacity and lower the loadshedding stages. “This will, however, still require Eskom to continue implementing load-shedding for the foreseeable future until the situation has been normalised.”
“We have 3,349 on planned maintenance, while another 16,865MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns. Eskom continues to closely monitor the system and will implement and communicate any changes as may be necessary.
“Eskom would like to remind the public that loadshedding is implemented only as a last resort to protect the national grid.”
Eskom urged South Africans to use electricity sparingly on Friday and over the weekend.