Eskom says it will be implementing various stages of load shedding throughout the weekend following the near depletion of its emergency generation reserves.

By Thursday morning, Eskom said it had at least 16 585MW of capacity offline due to breakdowns with a further 5 683MW offline due to maintenance.

"Stage 3 load shedding is currently underway until 4pm on Thursday. Thereafter, it will increase to Stage 4 until 5am on Friday morning. Load shedding will be lowered to Stage 2 at 5am to 4pm on Friday. It is anticipated Stages 2 and 1 load shedding will be implemented during the weekend.

"Load shedding is implemented only as a last resort in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns," an Eskom statement read.

The power utility said despite bringing some generation units back online, it is still facing generation capacity challenges necessitating the continuation of the power cuts.

"The emergency generation reserves are almost depleted, both the diesel and pumped storage dam levels. These, together with persistent high levels of breakdowns of generating units, are among the major contributors to the continuing generation capacity shortages.

"Since Tuesday evening Eskom teams have returned a generating unit each at Duvha, Kendal and Medupi power stations to service," Eskom said.