Eskom says it’s sorry for latest shock from stage 6

ESKOM has announced unprecedented stage 6 load shedding after losing more generating capacity, the power utility said.

The country has in the past weeks been experiencing stage 2 load-shedding, which shot up to stage 4 last week, an unprecedented move. Eskom said stage 6 schedules – which do not appear on municipal sites – are available on their website.

“We regret and sincerely apologise that stage 4 load-shedding will move to stage 6 load-shedding as from 6pm today (yesterday) as a result of a shortage of capacity. This follows a technical problem at Medupi Power Station impacting additional generation supply. The heavy rains have caused coal handling and operational problems at several power stations,” said a statement released on the utility’s Facebook page and linked to Twitter. The company’s emergency response command centre and technical teams were working throughout the night to restore units, said the utility.

“Load-shedding is a responsible act and highly controlled process, implemented to protect the country from a national blackout. After 2015, Eskom and municipalities identified the need to extend the load-shedding stages up to stage 8 and the national code was subsequently updated.”

Eskom began implementing Stage 4 load-shedding for the first time last week, but scaled back to Stage 2 over the weekend.

The company says continuous rain over parts of the country has affected its stocks, compounding a crisis caused by unplanned breakdowns at power plants.

“With the incessant rains we are beginning to experience flooding at some power stations, which is impacting coal handling and operations,” it said.

Load-shedding is a responsible act and highly controlled Eskom HEAD OFFICE