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Eskom continues to experience shortage of capacity and will carry on implementing Stage 2 loadshedding today, with a high possibility of continuing with loadshedding over the weekend. We will give an update about our prognosis for the weekend and the coming week later today.

As at 07:15 this morning, unplanned breakdowns stood at 11 695MW and we are addressing these to ensure timeous return to service. Critical maintenance is being conducted on units that are currently on planned outages. We are also managing the emergency reserves (water and diesel) at our open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) and pumped storage schemes.

We will sustain the exploration of the pilot programme of providing loadshedding respite during the morning and evening traffic rush hours. However, this has not been possible in the last few days owing to the available generating capacity and the need to replenish emergency reserves.

Customers are advised that any additional shifts on the system may require a change in the loadshedding stage. We therefore request customers to use electricity sparingly and to reduce demand during this period. Eskom also wishes to remind South Africans that there is an increased possibility of loadshedding over the next 18 months as we are conducting critical maintenance to restore the ageing plant to good health.      

To assist us in reducing the stage of loadshedding, we appeal to customers to use electricity sparingly:  

• Set air-conditioners’ average temperature at 23ºC  

• Switch off your geysers over peak periods  

• Use the cold water tap rather than using the geyser every time  

• Set your swimming pool pump cycle to run twice a day, three hours at a time 

• At the end of the day, turn off computers, copiers, printers and fax machines at the switch.

We appeal to customers to revisit their loadshedding schedules on the Eskom (https://loadshedding.eskom.co.za) or local municipal websites, depending on their electricity supplier, to review amendments.  

Issued by Eskom