South Africa's Eskom announced the implementation of Stage 2 power rationing

Published: May 14, 2025 09:37

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Eskom in South Africa issued an urgent announcement that it would initiate Level 2 power rationing load shedding measures at 16:00 on May 13 (Tuesday), which would continue until 22:00 on May 15 (Thursday). This move aims to address the limited power generation capacity and ensure stable power supply during working days.

May 14, 2025 News: On the 13th (local time), South Africa's Eskom issued an urgent announcement, stating that it would initiate Level 2 load shedding measures at 4:00 PM on May 13th (Tuesday), which would continue until 10:00 PM on May 15th (Thursday). This move aims to address limited power generation capacity and ensure stable power supply during working days.

Eskom indicated that the power rationing was due to multiple unfavourable factors impacting the power system. On one hand, generating units with a total installed capacity of 3,120 megawatts (MW) failed to resume operation on schedule due to delayed planned maintenance work. On the other hand, unplanned outages in the past 24 hours resulted in a loss of 1,385 MW of power generation capacity. The current unplanned power capacity loss has temporarily exceeded 13,000 MW, aligning closely with the risk warnings outlined in the company's "2025 Winter Outlook". Earlier this month, Eskom had explicitly warned that if power interruptions exceeded 13,000 MW, it would have to implement power rationing measures.

Despite this challenge, Eskom emphasized that the overall condition of the power system has significantly improved compared to previous winters. In the past fiscal year, the availability rate of power generation capacity surged to 96%, far exceeding the 9% of the previous year. Meanwhile, the company is actively advancing three major projects, which are expected to add 2,500 MW of power to the power grid, and has received strong support from private sector partners.

Group CEO Dan Marokane pointed out that the company has taken swift action to strengthen supervision and management, strictly regulate the performance standards of service providers, and established a dedicated team to address the issue of delayed unit restoration, with senior leaders personally overseeing the process. He stated that despite recent setbacks affecting operations, the company has formulated a clear recovery plan and will make every effort to improve power supply based on existing achievements.

Eskom has committed to monitoring the dynamics of the power system in real-time and will promptly inform the public of the latest developments based on actual conditions.

For more details, please visit: SACETA official account.

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