South Africans will endure stage 5 rolling blackouts during the day and stage 6 at night until Saturday.
The power utility said this is due to insufficient generation capacity and the need to further replenish emergency reserves.
“Stage 5 load shedding will be implemented from 05:00 today until 20:00. Thereafter, stage 6 loadshedding will be implemented from 20:00 until 05:00 on Thursday. This pattern of implementing stage 5 load shedding from 05:00 until 05:00 will be repeated daily until Saturday morning,” read a statement from Eskom.
The power utility said it would closely monitor the power system and communicate any changes to loadshedding should it be required.
These new changes come after Eskom implemented stage 6 on Wednesday, despite assurances by Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa at the weekend that the power utility must keep the rolling blackouts at stage 4.
Meanwhile, the latest announcement was followed by what Eskom referred to as “another significant milestone” as it has returned Kusile unit 2 to service two days before the planned date.
“This marks another significant milestone in the Eskom Generation Operational Recovery plan which aims at increasing the energy availability factor to 70% by 2025. Each generating unit at Kusile can contribute up to 800 megawatts of capacity to the grid,” added the statement.
The utility applauded the Kusile team for their dedication and commitment in bringing back the much-needed megawatts to South Africans earlier than planned.