State-owned power utility Eskom on Tuesday announced that it has implemented Stage 2 load-shedding to ease the strain on the national electricity grid.

Stage 2 load-shedding, which had been ongoing since Sunday morning, started at 06:00 on Tuesday and would continue until 22:00.

“The electricity supply system remains very vulnerable due to a shortage of generation capacity as several units are currently out of service due to planned and unplanned outages,” Eskom said in a power alert.

The utility reiterated that any additional changes on the “already vulnerable” and constrained power system could lead to a change in the stage of load-shedding “at short notice”.

Stage 1 load-shedding allowed Eskom to take up to 1 000 MW off the national grid, while Stage 2 cut up to 2 000 MW.

Stage 3 was the most critical stage as 4 000 MW of electricity was cut.