It has been a case of one step forward and two back over the last 24 hours for the national power provider, with units breaking down and others returning.
President Cyril Ramaphosa had barely finished his disappointing state of the nation address on Thursday night when Eskom ramped up its load-shedding to stage 4. It was the perfect full stop to a speech almost entirely devoid of meaning.
Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has conceded he can't predict the load-shedding outlook this year due to Eskom's unreliable generating fleet.