CAPE TOWN, June 28 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's power utility Eskom on Tuesday announced that it will enhance the level of load shedding from current Stage 4 to the more severe Stage 6 in certain periods on Tuesday and Wednesday, due to "unlawful" labor action.
This is the worst power outage since 2019. Eskom has only implemented Stage 6 load shedding once, in December 2019. Stage 6 load shedding will be implemented from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. on Tuesday and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Wednesday, while Stage 4 or Stage 2 will be implemented during other hours, it said in a statement.
Eskom said the labor action has caused widespread disruption to its power plants, which compels it to continue taking precautionary measures to conserve generation capacity and safeguard plants from damage.
It however said, "there is a high risk that the stage of load shedding may have to change at any time, depending on the state of the plant."
Eskom currently has 3,218 megawatts (MW) on planned maintenance, while another 17,621MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns. ■