Eskom said it will continue to implement severe power cuts – at stage 4 – until at least the end of the workweek.
The troubled state-owned electricity utility said in a statement issued at 3pm on Wednesday that there is a “possibility” that the intensity of the load shedding will be reduced from Saturday morning but made no promises.
It said it suffered further plant breakdowns on Wednesday morning at the Kendal and Majuba power stations due to boiler tube leaks.
“The breakdowns during the past few days of three generating units each at Kendal and Tutuka power stations, as well as the delayed return of a unit at Camden power station, continue to contribute to capacity constraints.”
Planned maintenance is also taking place at Arnot, Kriel, Matimba, Matla and Camden power stations.
Wednesday’s outages mark the 100th day in 2022 that Eskom has cut the power through load shedding, with 108 days left in the year.
“Eskom teams are working around the clock to return units to service, but in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to carry out unplanned maintenance to return units to service, we unfortunately have to implement load shedding,” the utility said.
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