After losing additional generating capacity, Eskom announced on Monday morning that it would be moving to stage 4 load shedding from 10:00. 
It did not immediately say which units had been lost. 
The power utility announced on Sunday evening that it would be implementing stage 2 rotational power cuts all day on Monday. It previously said it expected load shedding to stop at 23:00 on Monday. 
There is a high likelihood that power rationing will be implemented for the rest of the week. Stage 4 allows for up to 4 000MW - just under 10% of Eskom's nominal capacity - to be cut from the national grid. 
The utility said on Monday it was hoping the use the weekend to fix unplanned outages of generating units, but said on Sunday evening that additional units had been lost. Unplanned breakdowns were at above 12 000MW on Sunday evening, about a quarter of the utility's nominal generating capacity. 
Eskom said it would be implementing load shedding overnight on Sunday to enable it to replenish water supplies for its pumped storage schemes, which it hopes will help lessen the impact of cuts during the week. 
"We continue to ask customers to reduce demand as a concerted collective effort to avoid or lessen the level of load shedding," it said.