Charge Your Power Banks, Stage 3 Load Shedding Returns This Weekend

If you have fun plans for this weekend, you’ll have to have your fun in the dark. Eskom has just announced the return of Stage 3 load shedding from 14h00 today, Friday 7 March.

The beleaguered state-owned power utility ‘anticipates’ Stage 3 to last until 05h00 on Monday, 10 March. Time to get those backup power stations out again.

Wherefore art thou, electricity?

#PowerAlert1

Eskom implements Stage 3 loadshedding from 14:00 today and anticipates to be in this mode until Monday at 05:00, following 98% availability of power supply, due to loss of 2700MW over the past 14 hours. To replenish emergency reserves over the weekend –
ongoing… pic.twitter.com/t690tFZ24Y

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) March 7, 2025

Eskom said the cause of this recent bout of load shedding follows the loss of 2,700MW of generation power in the past fourteen hours.

“This includes Koeberg Unit 2, which was taken offline after being brought back on Wednesday, and two Kusile Units whose coal operations went sub-optimal following adverse weather in the area. Higher levels of planned maintenance outages, aimed at winter preparation and meeting regulatory and environmental licensing requirements are still underway.”

It goes on to say the loss of the aforementioned units has caused an increased reliance on emergency reserves, which it now needs to replenish to prepare for the following business week.

To meet the Monday morning deadline it set for itself, Eskom will deploy “extra engineering resources to expedite the repair of units currently offline. It is anticipated that 6,200MW will be restored to service by Monday’s evening peak.”

Read More: Tesla’s Powerwall 3 battery system arrives to take on SA’s load shedding

If all goes well, we shouldn’t see an increase to higher load shedding stages over the weekend, but, if history is any indication, we wouldn’t bet on it.

If you don’t already own one of the many backup power stations available in South Africa, perhaps this is the sign you’ve been waiting for. And for the wealthy folks, that Tesla Powerwall couldn’t have come at a better time.