Johannesburg - Power utility Eskom has announced that Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented from 2pm on Tuesday due to "additional breakdowns".
"Load shedding will move to Stage 4 from 14:00 this afternoon after Koeberg Unit 1 tripped. The unit has been disconnected from the grid due to a fault on the turbine side, however the nuclear reactor remains safe," said Eskom in a statement released on Tuesday afternoon.
"The teams are investigating the root causes of the fault, and will advise of the remedy as soon as it is established. The loss of approximately 930MW unit puts further strain on the generation fleet, necessitating an increase int he stage of load shedding."
"As the ageing fleet is currently constrained, unpredictable and vulnerable, we advise South Africans that the stage of loadshedding may change at short notice should there be an unexpected change in the generation system performance. Demand has also risen incrementally since January."
Unsurprisingly, South Africans did not take the news well and took to Twitter, with the hash tag #Stage4 to share their dissatisfaction with Eskom.
Take a look at what some users had to say about Stage 4 which is trending on Twitter below:
Stage 1 to Stage 4 in 24hours, Only if one's salary did the same. pic.twitter.com/jijujZxcxi
— Ntuthuko (@ntux_SA) March 10, 2020
Stage 4 , now the corona virus will sneak on us in the dark pic.twitter.com/xPsB4HBQO5
— Nhlanhla Nomeko (@NNomeko) March 10, 2020
I don't know why I get so irrationally triggered by load shedding when it's been going on for the past few months but on another note stage 4 loadshedding??? are u 𝙟𝙖𝙨.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/Eskom_SA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Eskom_SA #loadshedding
— Rudi (@ParametricCurve)
Stage 4 banna! Is this coal wet again? I'm sure the Italy 10 patients sneezed on our coal now pic.twitter.com/Uk0Ti1z09Q