"Eskom urges the public to reduce electricity usage as the power generation system is severely constrained this afternoon. The return of one generation unit has been delayed, while another two units have tripped today. One of the tripped units has returned," said the company via a statement.  

It said Eskom teams were "working hard" to return as many of the units to services as possible, adding "any further deterioration in the generation performance may necessitate the implementation of load-shedding at short notice".

"As the aged generation infrastructure is unreliable and volatile, this constrained power system is expected to persist for the rest of the week".

The return of a unit each at Majuba and Medupi Power Stations has been delayed, and a unit each at the Tutuka and Hendrina Power Stations tripped earlier on Monday, Eskom said. 

"This adds to further breakdowns at the Tutuka, Majuba, Komati, Kendal, and Hendrina Power Stations. These unplanned breakdowns contributed to the more than 11 000MW of capacity, adding to the 4 658MW currently out on planned maintenance."

The state-owned entity urged citizens to help reduce electricity usage "to assist Eskom to keep the lights on".

The country experienced rolling blackouts last week for the same reasons. The blackouts were suspended for the weekend. 

African News Agency