Eskom has announced that Stage 3 load shedding will be implemented from 14:00 today until Monday, 10 March 2025, at 05:00. This follows the loss of 2,700MW over the past 14 hours.
The City of Cape Town says it will protect customers where it can. Steenbras reserves must be built where possible over the weekend for the week ahead’s load shedding protection.
City customers will start off at Stage 1 at 14:00 until 10:00, moving to Stage 3 overnight:
Among the contributing factors for this latest bout of load shedding is the outage of Koeberg Unit 2, which was taken offline shortly after returning to service on Wednesday.
Additionally, two Kusile units experienced operational disruptions due to adverse weather conditions affecting coal supply.
The power utility is also undertaking high levels of planned maintenance in preparation for the upcoming winter season and to meet regulatory requirements.
Eskom explained that the loss of generating capacity has increased reliance on emergency reserves during the week, necessitating efforts to replenish these critical resources over the weekend in anticipation of the business week ahead. The power utility aims to restore 6,200MW of generating capacity by Monday’s evening peak.
Eskom’s Group Executive for Generation, Bheki Nxumalo, reassured the public that load shedding remains a temporary measure and that the company is committed to stabilizing electricity supply.
“We reiterate our commitment to ensuring that South Africa does not return to the extreme levels of loadshedding experienced in 2023. While we are facing a challenging period, our highly skilled engineering teams are working tirelessly to restore units and enhance generation capacity.”
Eskom Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane, acknowledged delays in returning some units to service but emphasized that structural improvements to the generation fleet are reducing the long-term risk of load shedding.
“We maintain our guidance that loadshedding is largely behind us due to improvements in generation capacity. Our recovery plan aims to achieve a stable energy availability factor of 65% to 70%, which will significantly reduce the risk of loadshedding.”
Eskom also highlighted that, as a result of intensified maintenance, the number of loadshedding-free hours has significantly increased compared to the previous year.
Between 1 April 2024 and 27 February 2025, loadshedding was suspended for 325 days (7,871 hours), compared to just 32 days (2,103 hours) in the same period the previous year.
Despite this temporary setback, Eskom reassured South Africans that efforts remain focused on stabilizing the electricity grid. The utility will continue to monitor the situation and provide further updates as needed.
