Eskom implements stage 4 load shedding

Eskom has announced that stage 4 load shedding will be implemented on Tuesday morning.

The power utility said the jump from Stage 2 happened at 7:20 after Majuba Unit 5 and Tutuka Unit 4 tripped.

“Regretfully, Eskom has just been forced to implement Stage 4 loadshedding at 07:20 following Majuba Unit 5 and Tutuka Unit 4 tripping. A full statement will be published in due course.”

Eskom on Sunday implemented stage 2 load shedding from 4pm until 5am on Wednesday due to additional generation unit losses and delayed return to service of generators.

Eskom has constantly been rolling over maintenance that it has scheduled as it battles to keep generation from the coal fleet at adequate levels.

This deferral of maintenance has a knock-on effect: the coal plants become more unreliable, forcing it to run working units harder which, in turn, affects their reliability.

Over the past week, Eskom has used an enormous amount of diesel as well as emergency measures such as interruptible load supply and virtual power supply (where it cuts power to large customers, primarily the aluminium smelters) just to keep the lights on. And that was in addition to load shedding from Monday evening until Friday at 05:00.

Meanwhile, Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter is expected to brief the media at 10:00 on Tuesday on the state of the national grid.