South Africa is grappling with its most significant nationwide electricity outage in months, following an announcement by the state-owned power utility, Eskom, of the implementation of what is termed “Stage Six load shedding.” This entails the removal of six thousand megawatts from the grid until further notice, effective midnight tonight.
According to a statement from Eskom, as reported by Bloomberg, the escalating blackout comes despite the utility’s efforts to restore two generating units to service within the past 24 hours, albeit with the cessation of operations of two disparate units.
The statement elaborated that this occurrence coincided with the necessity to replenish reservoir levels ahead of the forthcoming week, prompting the implementation of Stage Six load shedding from midnight until further notice.