Friday, February 28, 2025

January 31, 2025

Eskom Issues Stage 4 Load Shedding Alert For This Weekend

“Eskom has issued an alert indicating a high risk of load shedding at short notice."

[Image: Wikicommons]

Well, it’s been a nice ten months, but this weekend might see the return of load shedding. Welcome back darkness, our old friend.

Eskom has issued a load-shedding alert warning customers of a ‘high risk’ of outages this weekend – possibly up to stage 4.

“Eskom has issued an alert indicating a high risk of load shedding at short notice.”

“This is a potentially temporary setback. Load shedding is largely behind us due to the structural improvements in our generation fleet. However, over the past seven days, we have experienced several breakdowns that require extended repair times.”

“Consequently, we are closely monitoring the status of our current emergency reserves, and load shedding up to Stage 4 may be implemented over the weekend.”

Eskom’s operations have improved significantly in the last few months, and the company has been able to recover much of its lost capacity, but it is still a fine balancing act between supply and demand.

Energy experts have warned that despite the last ten months of uninterrupted supply, we’re not out of the woods yet. Guess they were right.

Eskom’s 52-week projection for 2025 also expressed risk scenarios including a shortage in electricity supply, particularly around this time—the end of January and early February. The projection also depicts a “likely risk” scenario in which Eskom would have a shortage of more than 2,000MW for most of the winter months (beginning in May).

Looks like we’re braaiing all weekend.

[Source: Businesstech]