Photo by: Creamer Media
Eskom confirmed on Tuesday that it would continue with Stage 2 load-shedding until Thursday morning.
The embattled power utility, which has a total generating capacity of 46 000 megawatt, said unexpected outages cost it 11 389 megawatt on Tuesday morning. Stage 2 load-shedding allows Eskom to take up to 2 000 megawatt of demand off the grid.
Eskom interrupted load-shedding at 6am on Tuesday morning and resumed it at 9am, to allow for ease of traffic during the morning commute to work.
It said it would, as it did on Monday, suspend load-shedding at 4pm for two hours to similarly ease traffic congestion as people returned home.
"Suspending load-shedding during the peak traffic hours is a pilot programme to minimise the impact of load-shedding. As this is not possible every day, it will be confirmed each day, dependent on the risk based on the available capacity and emergency reserves on the day," the company said.
Eskom apologised for the continued blackouts, acknowledging they had a negative impact on the country.
The utility implemented Stage 6 load-shedding in early December, prompting fears of an imminent grid collapse, but managed to avoid load-shedding over the main festive period.
Last week, Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter confirmed that the company would implement load-shedding for the foreseeable future as its generating capacity was under severe strain.