A power alert issued by Eskom late on Monday night has put South Africans on high alert.

While Eskom has not implemented loadshedding, it has said that the electricity system is severely constrained after the unexpected loss of generation units at the weekend.

“The system remains vulnerable to a number of variables due to historic factors such as inadequate maintenance, as well as ageing of plant. The unexpected loss of additional units may result in loadshedding at short notice,” the utility wrote.

The constrained nature of the grid is expected to last until Thursday but, as of time of writing, loadhsedding has not yet been implemented.

“Eskom would like to appeal to residents and businesses to use electricity sparingly as we continue to manage the electricity system,” Eskom added.

Last week minister of Public Enterprise Pravin Gordhan detailed how Eskom would be split up. The utility will act as a holding company with generation and transmission being separated into subsidiaries operating under the Eskom Holdings banner.

Whether this will be enough to turn the ship around remains to be seen but Gordhan did state that this process would not happen overnight.