Photo by: Bloomberg
Loadshedding will continue into the weekend, but will be dropped to Stage 2 and Stage 1, Eskom said on Thursday morning.
"Stage 3 loadshedding is currently underway until 16:00 on Thursday, thereafter, it will increase to Stage 4 until 05:00 on Friday morning," the power utility said.
"Loadshedding will be lowered to Stage 2 at 05:00 - 16:00 on Friday. It is anticipated Stages 2 and 1 loadshedding will be implemented during the weekend."
Eskom said emergency generation reserves are almost depleted. This includes both diesel and pumped storage dam levels.
"These, together with persistent high levels of breakdowns of generating units, are among the major contributors to the continuing generation capacity shortages."
Since Tuesday night Eskom returned a generating unit each at Duvha, Kendal and Medupi power stations to service.
There is currently 5 683 MW out on planned maintenance, while 16 585 MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.