Please note that load shedding will resume tomorrow from 6am to 10pm.
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) November 21, 2014
Eskom started with scheduled blackouts on Friday afternoon, the power utility said. Eskom has now escalated its load shedding to phase two, which means that 2 000 MW instead of 1 000 MW of load reduction is needed. “Load shedding will continue until 10am this morning,” it said in a short power update on twitter yesterday.
2/4: Please immediately switch off geysers; pool pumps, air conditioning and unnecessary lights to limit the impact. — Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) November 20, 2014
Eskom said it would release a more detailed statement later on Friday.
On Thursday, Eskom said the power system was severely constrained due to unforeseen technical problems at power stations.
“Should we experience further technical problems, we may need to implement load-shedding,” Eskom said at the time.
Earlier this month a coal storage silo at the Majuba power station in Mpumalanga collapsed, resulting in widespread power cuts. The silo held more than 10 000 tons of coal and affected coal supplies to all six units at the power station.
An investigation into the collapsed silo is underway.
Finally, Eskom gave a indication of the load shedding process on its current twit at the time of this publication
Stage 2 means load shedding 2 hours every day. Stage 1 means 2 hours every other (or every second) day.
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) November 22, 2014
