There will be power failures in Tshwane for two to three hours per area until Eskom has sorted out its problems, the municipality said on Friday.
Spokesperson Console Tleane appealed to motorists to drive carefully because of bad weather and the fact that some traffic lights would be off.
The Boardwalk, Bronberg, Equestria, Faerie Glen, Flora Park, Ifafi, Melodie, Mulderia, Pecanwood, Phianna, Silver Lakes, Tijger Vallei, Wapadrand and Willow Acres were some of the areas that will be without electricity between 10am and noon on Friday.
If power remained off in an area no longer scheduled for load-shedding, it should be reported it to the electricity help desk on 012-339-9111 or 080-1111-556.
Power failures hit parts of the country on Friday morning after ”unplanned” failures at Eskom.
”Eskom started implementing load shedding this morning after losing electricity imports from the Cahora Bassa [hydroelectric project in Mozambique],” said the company.
South Africa relied on about 1 400 megawatts of power from the station. Power had also been lost when several generation 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 were asked to switch off geysers during peak hours — 7am to 10am and 6pm to 9pm. Businesses were 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