SOUTH AFRICA - SA TO FACE ROLLING BLACKOUTS AS STAGE 2 LOADSHEDDING CONTINUES TILL MONDAY

Eskom on said Friday that Stage 2 load shedding would start on 9am on Friday and continue through to 6am on Monday .

The embattled power utility explained in a statement that the rolling blackouts were due to shortage of generation capacity and depleted emergency resources.

"We are taking out three big units for planned maintenance today. Unplanned outages were at 12 722 MW as at 5:30am this morning. "

Earlier on Friday CEO Andre de Ruyter warned that South Africans should expect increased load shedding for the foreseeable future.

De Ruyter told a media briefing the power utility did not take the decision to impose more scheduled blackouts lightly, but had no choice because of the problems inherent in the power system at the moment.

"We are particularly scrupulous about the imposition of load shedding. It is not a decision we take lightly..." De Ruyter said.

It is obviously very regrettable to do this to South Africa but we cannot avoid it given the state of the system where we are right now. Our system is constrained, it unreliable and unpredictable and it is prone to unplanned outages and breakdowns."

He did not give a clear time estimate of how Eskom foresaw load shedding would be needed.

It returned to load shedding on Thursday after the country was plunged into crisis in December when the power utility took the unprecedented step of imposing Stage 6 load shedding.

via - IOL