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UPDATE: South Africa will go to stage four load shedding from 3PM today. Eskom wasn’t joking with the “high probability” part…

Load shedding is a little like that scene from The Godfather: Part III.

Just when we thought we were being given some respite, they pull us back in.

Except that we know we are in the dwang for years (at least five, according to a prominent energy expert), and even something as simple as organising an online meeting to plot the way forward proves to be an obstacle.

Today, we are on load shedding stage two, but Eskom has stated that the situation could change at any moment.

This from Moneyweb:

South Africa’s power utility rationed electricity for a second day Wednesday and warned outages may worsen due to breakdowns at key generation units.

Eskom Holdings said it’s cutting 2 000 megawatts from the grid between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., continuing with rolling blackouts that are adding to the woes facing the Africa’s most-industrialised economy. Eskom, which is saddled with R450 billion of debt, blamed failures in 10 generation units at seven power stations for the disruptions…

“There is a high probability that additional stages of load shedding may be implemented at short notice,” the utility said.

You don’t want to see the phrases “high probability” and “short notice” in a statement regarding your country’s power supply.

Here’s the full Eskom release from last night:

#PowerAlert 2
Eskom to continue implementing Stage 2 #Loadshedding from 08:00 until 22:00 tomorrow as power system is still severely constrained pic.twitter.com/JfuYcWxAyD

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) September 1, 2020

Nothing we haven’t heard before, right?

Annelize can’t be the only one having this thought:

Quite amazed at how @Eskom_SA units always know how to break down at the same time.

— Annelize van Wyk (@annelizevanwyk) September 1, 2020

So, ja, just make sure you check out EskomSePush so that you know what the stage two schedule is, and no harm in making a mental note of what the schedule would look like under stage three, either.

The best purchase I made last winter was a gas heater. Even Eskom can’t ruin that for me.

[source:moneyweb]