Photo by: Creamer Media
South African power utility, Eskom, on Tuesday announced stage 4 loadshedding from 2pm after Koeberg Power Station's unit 1 tripped.
"The unit has been disconnected from the grid due to a fault on the turbine side, however, the nuclear reactor remains safe. The teams are investigating the root cause of the fault and will advise on the remedy as soon as it is established," Eskom said.
"The loss of approximately 930MW unit puts further strain on the generation fleet, necessitating an increase in the stage of loadshedding. As the ageing fleet is currently constrained, unpredictable and vulnerable, we advise South Africans that the stage of loadshedding may change at short notice should there be any unexpected change in the generation system performance."
The power utility said that electricity demand had also increased since January.
It urged South Africans to cooperate in managing the country's electricity consumption to help minimise loadshedding.