Ramokgopa Says Breakdowns & Accelerated Maintenance Brought About Stage 6 Loadshedding

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the latest escalation in loadshedding is "short-term pain" for "long-term gain" and anticipated that power outages will ease from the current Stage 6 to lower levels by the end of this week.

• Ramokgopa spoke alongside Eskom's Group Executive for Generation Bheki Nxumalo to provide an update on the current state of the electricity grid following the breakdown of several generation units over the past couple of days.
• The Electricity Minister said that Eskom decided against delaying its planned maintenance despite further units being taken offline, as the utility seeks to "build resilience into the system".
• Eskom had previously slowed down its planned maintenance to cope with heightened demand during the winter period, which likely contributed to the current breakdowns while creating the need to catch up on maintenance works.
• Bheki Nxumalo added that the latest breakdowns occurred when Eskom's pumped storage reserves were at their lowest, forcing higher levels of loadshedding. These reserves are expected to recover by the end of the week.