On Tuesday morning 19 April, Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter revealed the power station’s loadshedding forecast for the upcoming winter months.
And according to the power utility, outages are likely to continue unless unplanned outages can better be managed.
Eskom lays out three scenarios
During the media briefing, three scenarios were laid out – best, medium and extreme case scenarios.
Best case scenario
If unplanned outages can stay below 12 500 MW, then 0 days of loadshedding can be expected.
Medium-case scenario
If unplanned outages go a bit higher than planned, SA can expect 7 days of loadshedding.
Extreme case scenario
If the unplanned outages are beyond expectancy, 101 days of loadshedding can be expected.
By this time, however, few South Africans believe the power utility and are definitely expecting more unplanned outages to cause the untimely power cuts.
Current loadshedding is expected to end Friday
Currently, Stage 4 loadshedding is implemented all around South Africa.
According to De Ruyter, Eskom’s current unplanned outages area at 15 672 MW – which he describes as “unacceptably high”.
He added that in the best-case scenario, customers can expect Stage 4 to carry on until Friday 22 April. But chances are high that stage 4 might have to stretch into the upcoming weekend as reserves are replenished.
All loadshedding schedules for South Africa can be downloaded here.