South Africa’s throttled power utility Eskom issued an alert suggesting that some in the country could be without lights on Thursday evening.

Posted to Twitter, the alert reveals that there is a “high risk of Stage 1 load shedding from 5pm to 10pm today”.

It confirmed that it will only be implemented if “absolutely necessary”.

The announcement comes after the utility noted a shortage of capacity and the loss of generating units at its power stations.

“The Winter Plan shared on 3 April 2019 indicated theat Eskom expects to implement 26 days of Stage 1 load shedding during the winter period, depending on the level of unplanned breakdowns,” it continued.

“Based on the Winter Plan, Eskom has successfully managed to go through five days without load shedding, where Stage 1 load shedding would have been implemented.”

The power utility urged South Africans to use power sparingly.

Feature image: kloxklox via Pixabay