Brace yourself for another week of intermittent power cuts as Eskom struggles to generate enough electricity.

Eskom told Sowetan yesterday that it would still struggle to meet South Africa's energy demands this week.

The power utility confirmed to Sowetan yesterday that it has already started increasing its diesel stock in preparation for high power demand this week, which may compel it to use its diesel-operated open gas turbines. In its reply to Sowetan, Eskom indicated that despite not having burnt diesel during load-shedding over the past few days, it remained an option due to limited capacity. "We have augmented our emergency resources, diesel in particular, over the weekend to be ready for the week ahead," Eskom said.

Burning diesel is used by Eskom as a last resort as it is a very expensive option.

Last year, Eskom's spend on diesel for open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) rose from R4.67m in January to R43.62m in February, escalating to R140.67m in March. In a reply to News24 in May, Eskom said it paid R47.4bn to 48 suppliers for diesel between 2009 and 2019 just to keep the lights on.

Since Thursday, South Africans have endured load-shedding as Eskom had too many units off-line due to breakdowns.

Yesterday, stage 2 load-shedding was implemented in the morning to allow the power utility to replenish water reserves at its pumped storage scheme.