Eskom again resorted to Stage 3 loadshedding on Friday, after a loss of 2 700 MW in 14 hours, including Koeberg Unit 2, which was taken offline on March 2 and was meant to have been returned to service within two days.

Implementation began at 14:00 on Friday March 7 and was scheduled to continue until 5:00 on Monday, March 10, the utility said in a statement.

"This decision comes after a loss of 2 700 MW in the past 14 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."

It said the constrained capacity had resulted in the increased reliance on emergency diesel and pumped-hydro reserves during this week, which now had to be replenished over the weekend in preparation for the business week.

"Eskom is focused on deploying extra engineering resources to expedite the repair of units currently offline.

"It is anticipated that 6 200 MW will be restored to service by Monday’s evening peak."

The latest bout of rotational power cuts comes only a week-and-a-bit after Eskom took the shock decision to ramp up loadshedding to Stage 6 in the early hours of Sunday, February 23, having initially declared Stage 3 on Saturday February 22.

As with the Stage 6 event, Eskom insisted that this latest round of loadshedding represented a temporary setback, rather than any return to the dark days of 2023 when loadshedding was implemented almost daily, often at high levels.

News that Unit 2 at the Koeberg nuclear plant is again out of service will raise questions, however, given that the unit experienced an "unplanned, non-technical trip while operating at full capacity" on March 2.

Eskom said at the time that the unit had tripped during the execution of work on Unit 1, which is currently offline for work to be conducted as part of its Long-Term Operation programme, and indicated that Unit 2 was expected to be reconnected to the national grid within 48 hours.

Ahead of Eskom's declaration, a graphic from Eskom's data portal was shared showing that Koeberg had not returned as of March 5, while also pointing to the utility's heavy reliance on the diesel-fuelled open-cycle gas turbines during the run-up to the loadshedding announcement.

Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said he would provide a status update on the country's generation performance at midday on Saturday March 8.