Power failures hit parts of the country on Friday morning after ”unplanned” failures at Eskom.
”Eskom started implementing load shedding this morning [Friday] after losing electricity imports from the Cahora Bassa [hydroelectric project in Mozambique],” said the company.
Eskom said the problem was being investigated.
South Africa relied on about 1 400 megawatts of power from the station.
Power had also been lost when several generator units failed.
Load shedding would be rotated, with areas being without power for about two hours at a time.
Eskom said they were using all their emergency energy resources at hand, including gas turbines and buying back power from large industrial customers.
”However, this was not sufficient to address the shortfall,” said the company.
Residential customers are asked to switch off geysers during peak hours from 7am to 10am and from 6pm to 9pm. Business are asked to turn off all non-essential lighting and equipment.
Load shedding schedules were available on the Eskom website.
Customers could also telephone Eskom’s call centre on 08600-37566. – Sapa