Ramokgopa hoping to end imposed Stage 3 rolling blackouts by Monday

The Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has said that they are hoping to end the imposed Stage 3 rolling blackouts by Monday.

He was giving an update on the status of the country’s grid, alongside the management of power utility Eskom in Pretoria.

Ramokgopa has admitted to some failures, after stage three load shedding was imposed on Friday, due to power generation challenges in some of the utility’s power plants.

LIVE STREAM: Electricity Minister Ramokgopa media briefing following implementation of load shedding:

The affected power stations include Koeberg Unit 2, which was taken offline, and two Kusile Units whose coal operations were affected by adverse weather in the area.

Adding to the current electricity supply constraints is the higher levels of planned maintenance outages, aimed at winter preparation and meeting regulatory and environmental licensing requirements are still underway.

Eskom says is focused on deploying extra engineering resources to expedite the repair of units currently offline. It is anticipated that 6200MW will be restored to service by Monday’s evening peak.

The events that triggered Stage 3 load shedding occurred while the system was already under strain.