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Ismail Sha studies with a rechargeable lantern for his final examination during one of the frequent power outages, called load-shedding, from South Africa’s struggling power utility Eskom, because of ageing coal-fired power stations, in Cape Town, South Africa, October 25, 2022.
Eskom has downgraded its load shedding from stage six to four.
This follows the successful recovery of all five units at Majuba, two units at Camden, and one unit at Medupi since Saturday, totaling eight out of 10 generation units that had tripped this weekend.
Monday, 24 February 2025:
Loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 4 from Monday at 00:30 until further notice.
This follows the successful recovery of all five units at Majuba, two units at Camden, and one unit at Medupi since Saturday, totaling eight out of ten…
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) February 23, 2025
For the second time this year, South Africa has been plunged into unexpected darkness after the power utility announced the return of rolling blackouts last weekend.
Load shedding started with stage three but quickly escalated to stage six.
Eskom has attributed this to the failure of 10 units at three of its power stations
Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has conceded that the current rolling blackouts are unacceptable but says they are necessary to protect the grid.
Addressing the media in Pretoria yesterday, Ramokgopa says although the generation recovery plan is aggressive, it is the best option.
He says, “I’ll prefer to say the head room that we have created as a result of being a bit more aggressive on maintenance did not give us the opportunity to maneuver in the event we have a cluster of units failing.”
Ramokgopa adds: “What is the option of going this route, there’s a downside of taking the route we are taking and that downside is that once you have a cluster of units failing, you don’t have sufficient headroom for you to accommodate or absorb those failures, and the only tools at your disposal is load shedding and that risk has materialised now.”
Related video| Ramokgopa, Eskom media briefing following implementation of load shedding:
