Update | 20 March 2025, 7am:
Almost as quickly as it commenced, City of Cape Town confirmed that Eskom’s latest bout of loadshedding has been suspended until further notice.
Residents, however, are still advised to use electricity wisely and sparingly.
City of Cape Town customers are also reminded that ‘the lower the power usage, the better the chances of the City offering protection to customers’.
The recent power cuts come hot on the heels of the National Regulator of South Africa’s (NERSA) approval of Eskom’s 12.74% electricity tariff increase.
Just as power supply appeared to be stabilising, Eskom was forced to implement Stage 2 load shedding on Wednesday evening following an unexpected loss of five generating units, Cape {town} Etc reports.
The power utility confirmed that while efforts to recover generation capacity have been progressing, the sudden breakdowns put additional pressure on the grid. As a result, load shedding was introduced at 6:25pm and is set to continue until 5am on Thursday, 20 March.
Eskom assured that planned maintenance remains a priority to strengthen system reliability ahead of winter while adhering to environmental and regulatory requirements.
However, the ongoing constraints mean the public is urged to continue using electricity wisely to help ease demand.
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