Cape Town - While Eskom announced that it would start Stage 2 load shedding at 9am on Saturday, the City of Cape Town tweeted that its customers would only be on Stage 1.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/CTInfo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CTInfo pic.twitter.com/eRxrAm9qhP
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT)
"While Eskom expects some generation units to return to service during the night, we will continue implementing Stage 2 load shedding until 10pm. Load shedding will then be suspended until 9am tomorrow, when it resumes again at the Stage 2 level and continue until 10pm," the embattled power utility said in a statement.
"Even though some of the units are expected back in service tonight, continuing with load shedding tomorrow is necessary in order to replenish the emergency generation reserves to better prepare for the coming week. Due to the much colder weather, demand for electricity has also risen significantly."
South Africa has not seen scheduled blackouts for almost four months as power demand dropped while the country was placed under lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Eskom said that three of the six generation units contributing to the earlier breakdowns have been successfully returned to service at the Tutuka, Arnot and Matimba power stations. It said that this had a net effect of reducing the plant breakdowns to 2,350MW of capacity, with breakdowns occurring at the Arnot, Kendal, Tutuka, and Majuba power stations.
"The delayed return to service of a generation unit at the Duvha power station has also added significant pressure to the generation system," Eskom said.
The power utility Eskom urged South Africans to continue reducing their electricity usage to help limit the impact of load shedding. Eskom said it would communicate "any significant changes to the supply situation".
"Over the past two evenings the help of the public assisted us in avoiding the need for load shedding. With your help Eskom can again recover from this much quicker."