Africa-Press – South-Africa. Eskom has warned that South Africa could face Stage 7 or 8 load shedding on Wednesday evening if electricity usage is not reduced. Indefinite Stage 6 load shedding has already been implemented earlier this week.
A cold front hit the country on Tuesday, increasing the demand for electricity during the peak hours of between 17:00 to 21:00.
Eskom’s evening peak forecast for Wednesday evening was 29 609MW.
But on Tuesday evening, at the start of the cold front, peak demand hit 33 423MW – much higher than the forecast demand. The fear is that demand could reach similar levels on Wednesday, as the cold front has spread even further.
Nearly half of Eskom’s installed capacity is currently out of service due to unplanned breakdowns and maintenance work.
On Wednesday, the power utility warned that load shedding could worsen beyond Stage 6 if electricity demand were not cut during peak hours.
Cutting usage would reduce pressure on the system and help “avoid higher stages of load shedding”, it said.
READ | SA is one step away from Stage 8 load shedding as breakdowns, cash shortages lead to disaster
Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena told News24 on Wednesday morning that unplanned breakdowns were around 16 200MW and planned outages were over 5 000MW, or collectively just over 21 000MW.
Eskom’s installed capacity is 44 000MW – excluding independent power producers.
* This article’s headline has been updated for clarity.
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