State-owned power utility Eskom said that Stage 2 load-shedding will resume at 17:00 on April 12 and will again be suspended at 05:00 on April 13 owing to the continued shortage of generation capacity.

Load-shedding had been suspended at 05:00 on April 12, after being implemented from 18:00 the night before, but the constrained supply situation will persist throughout the week, with the possibility that more load-shedding is likely to be implemented should the generation capacity deteriorate further, the utility says.

“Unit 5 of Medupi Power Station [in Limpopo] returned to service during the night [of April 11]. Three generating units at the Camden Power Station tripped during the night, contributing to the current shortage of capacity. Eskom teams are working hard to return as many of these units to service as possible,” it notes.

Eskom currently has 4 804 MW on planned maintenance, while another 14 449 MW of capacity is unavailable owing to unplanned breakdowns.

“We are managing the emergency generation reserves to limit the stage of load-shedding. The overnight load-shedding will be used to replenish the dam level at the pump storage power stations in preparation for the remainder of the week,” it adds.