[imagesource: Unsplash]

Eskom has pushed the nation into stage four load shedding again.

We were supposed to be settled into stage two until Wednesday, with the shedding only implemented for the evening peak between 4PM and 12AM.

But things changed in the early hours of this morning (October 18) following more breakdowns at Eskom’s power stations.

TimesLIVE reported that because generation units at five power stations broke down overnight, the latest stage will be implemented until further notice. Apparently, Eskom will reveal more details later in the day.

At least October is spooky season and it’s appropriate to be dark (?). Eish.

Those in Cape Town still seemed to be spared, with EskomSePush showing that while the nation is on stage four, the Mother City is on stage two.

We probably expected that Eskom’s ageing fleet of power stations, which pretty much operates on the edge of collapse at all times, would break down and force us all into higher stages of rolling blackouts.

BusinessTech reported that Chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said this would remain a problem for the next 18 months before new generating capacity can be added to the grid:

“We need another year or year-and-a-half to get out of this,” Oberholzer said at the Agri SA conference near Johannesburg on Thursday. “We are going to go through a tough time over the next year and a half.”

There were times when I would look up from my darkened hovel and see Saffas just grinning and bearing it, getting on with constantly being load shed.

Nowadays, it feels like the fed-up-ness is reaching a boiling point.

I know, the electricity needs to be switched on to find the light at the end of this tunnel.

[source:timeslive]