As the winter months creep up, Eskom is warning of power outages as its generation capacity from ageing fleets takes strain.
About 32 areas in Limpopo and North West will have a four-hour blackout on Tuesday evening as Eskom continues its “load reduction” programme. The blackouts will begin at 5pm and run until 9pm.
The power utility said: “Currently, Eskom is battling to keep up with the increased equipment failure caused by overloading that is costing millions to repair. Eskom wishes to notify customers in Mopani, Capricorn and Sekhukhune districts [in Limpopo] that it will implement load reduction to prevent network overloading in affected areas …”
Four areas in the Rustenburg district will also have to contend with four-hours of darkness on Tuesday evening.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Eskom asked the public to use electricity sparingly because its systems were “under severe pressure, with a high probability of load-shedding”.
“A shortage of generation capacity, caused by breakdowns in generation units and delays in others returning to service, has resulted in supply constraints. While no load-shedding is anticipated at this point, Eskom could be forced to implement stage 1 or, if necessary, stage 2 load-shedding at short notice should any further breakdowns occur,” said the power utility. This is most likely to occur between 5pm and 10pm [on Tuesday] evening.”
Eskom said the outlook for the remainder of the week was expected to improve.