There is a “high likelihood” of load-shedding on Wednesday night, Eskom said, after enforced power cuts overnight on Tuesday.

Electricity was restored at 6am after stage 2 load-shedding was imposed from 1am.

Stage 2 load-shedding was anticipated again, as Eskom said it needed to replenish water resources for its pumped storage schemes and minimise the use of diesel at open-cycle gas turbines.

The power utility said it was now using emergency resources, including diesel, to meet demand today.

“The power system remains vulnerable. In the event that we lose other generation units or are unable to bring back those that were out for maintenance, load-shedding may be implemented earlier in the day,” Eskom said.

Plant breakdowns (UCLF) were at 13,471 MW as at 6am Wednesday, said Eskom.

“Our technical teams continue to monitor the situation, carry out planned maintenance and to work at reducing unplanned outages or breakdowns in order to enable us to minimise the possibility of loadshedding.

“We ask customers to reduce demand by using electricity sparingly as a concerted collective effort can help to avoid or reduce the level of loadshedding.”