Eskom has announced stages 4 and 6 load-shedding from Wednesday morning due to the “loss of additional generating units overnight”.

The embattled power utility made the announcement in a brief statement just before 7am, when stage 4 power cuts were expected to start.

“Due to the loss of additional generating units overnight, the extensive use of open gas cycle turbines and the inability to replenish pumped storage dam levels, stage 4 load-shedding will be implemented at 7am this morning [Wednesday] until 2pm.

“Thereafter stage 6 will be implemented until 5am on Thursday. This pattern will be repeated daily until further notice. Eskom will publish an update as soon as significant changes occur.”

Things have taken a turn for the worse for Eskom since Monday’s freezing weather across many parts of the country with snowfall in some provinces.

The utility implemented stage 4 power cuts from Monday afternoon due to higher demand as a result of icy temperatures.

The embattled entity had initially announced it would continue the trend of suspending power cuts between 12am and 4pm this week due to “consistent available generation capacity”.

An optimistic electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa told South Africans it was “unlikely” plummeting temperatures would impact on the severity of load-shedding.

He insisted at his Sunday briefing providing an update on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan that there was enough “leeway in the system to deal with peak weather patterns”.

Source: TimesLIVE