Eskom said there is a high risk of load shedding following months of uninterrupted power supply.
In a statement on Friday, the power utility said that after more than 10 months of uninterrupted electricity supply, due to the success of the Generation Recovery Plan, there was a high risk of load shedding at short notice this weekend.
Eskom Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane said: "This is a potentially temporary setback. Load shedding is largely behind us due to the structural improvements in our generation fleet.
"However, over the past seven days, we have experienced several breakdowns that require extended repair times.
"This has necessitated the use of all our emergency reserves, which now need to be replenished.
Marokane said they were closely monitoring the status of its current emergency reserves.
He said up to Stage 4 load shedding may be implemented over the weekend.
Eskom said it would provide further updates.
IOL previously reported that Eskom had spent close to R10 billion on diesel since March, helping it keep the lights on.
Matthew Cruise, an energy expert at Forest Energy Solutions claims Eskom has avoided numerous power cuts in January thanks to the use of diesel.
Cruise told Cape Talk that Eskom was not as “stable” as it would like South Africans to believe and there were a few cases where the utility was close to Stage 3 load shedding in January.
“We’ve been 300 days without load shedding. Yes, that is the case, but they’ve been doing everything in their power and spending as much diesel as they can to keep that narrative alive,” he explained.
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