Eskom says load shedding will be reduced to stage three from 10pm this evening after six generation units were returned to service.

The country has been under a stricter load shedding stage four schedule since Tuesday.

The power utility said at least three more units are expected to also return on Thursday.

“A generation unit each at the Arnot and Kendal power stations returned to service during the day, adding to the Lethabo units and one each at Camden and Matla power stations that returned to service during the night. A unit each at Majuba, Matimba and Arnot power stations are expected to return to service by [Thursday],

“Altogther, this will boost the generation capacity and ease constraints ahead of the weekend in which we also expect lower demand,” Eskom said.

Currently, the power utility has planned generation capacity outages of at least 5 787MW due to maintenance and unplanned outages of at least 14 259MW.

The power utility reiterated that load shedding is only enforced to protect the national power grid.

“Load shedding is implemented only as a last resort. We therefore request the public to continue using electricity sparingly as we strive to return units to service. Eskom would like to apologise for the implementation of load shedding and will continue to closely monitor the system. We will promptly inform the public should there be any significant developments,” Eskom said.

Source: South African Government News Agency