Stage 6, 7, Stage 8 load shedding next? | What to expect from Eskom

South Africa plummeted into stage 6 load shedding on Thursday leaving most parts of the country with prolonged outages and cold breakfasts.

Stage 6 outages will continue to be implemented until 5 am on Friday morning whereas stage 5 will be implemented until 5 am on Saturday morning.

With a requirement of up to 6000 megawatts, shed from the national grid, stage 6 load shedding means citizens will spend at least six hours a day without power.

The extreme case in stage power cuts was a result of breakdowns of two generating units at Grootvlei Power station as well as at Arnot, Duvha Kendal, Kriel and Tutuka power stations.

Some of the power stations have been delayed in returning to service meaning more candles for citizens around the country.

While Eskom received a diesel boost from PetroSA recently, the power utility has been forced to strictly preserve the remaining diesel for any extreme emergency situation such as multiple, or simultaneous trips of generators.

Is stage 8 on the cards?

Eskom ramping up load stages due to several generation units malfunctions, signals troubled waters for the power utility.

While the current megawatts available are dwindling due to breakdowns and maintenance, stage 8 is more likely to be a possibility in the next few weeks should breakdowns continue.

Eskom spokesperson Sikhonathi Mantshantsha clarifying the massive stage power cut, said the recent chimney breakdown led to two chimney’s taken off grid.

About 2 000MW of capacity was taken of the grid with the units only expected back to service in 6 to 12 months.

Mantshantsha said the Koeberg power station is now off due to steam generators that have to be replaced in order to operate for more than 20 years and that means 4 000MW will be unavailable as a result.

Six generating units at five power stations failing collectively took down around 19 000 MW of capacity.

In total about 24 000MW of capacity was currently unavailable, he said.

Painting a bleak picture, of dwindling power supply Mantshantsha said in reality no one could tell residents that there will be no stage 7 or 8.

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