Johannesburg - Eskom said it had been forced to implement stage 5 load shedding after five generating units broke down on Monday.
South Africa has been plunged into daily interrupted blackouts since December 27 last year.
The Eskom media desk said: “Following the failure of five generating units today, stage 5 load shedding will be implemented from 4pm today until 5am tomorrow, thereafter stage 4 load shedding will resume until further notice.”
On Sunday, Eskom had announced it would implement stage 4 load shedding until at least Tuesday morning.
They had predicted stage 3 load shedding from Tuesday until further notice.
They said generating units at Camden, Duvha, Majuba and two units at Kriel Power Station suffered breakdowns and were taken off-line for repairs.
They said a generating unit each at Hendrina, Medupi and Tutuka power stations were delayed. In addition, the repairs to the damaged towers from Cahora Bassa were taking longer than anticipated
A generating unit each at Duvha and Kriel power stations were returned to service during this period.
Breakdowns currently amount to 17 340 megawatt of generating capacity while 5 654MW of generating capacity is out of service for planned maintenance.