Load shedding to continue all weekend as emergency reserves critically low – here is the new schedule
Power utility Eskom has given its latest load shedding update, laying out the expected schedule through to Sunday (30 October).
Stage 4 load shedding will continue until Friday, it said, before dropping to lower stages for the weekend.
The schedule is as follows:
Thursday, 27 October
- Stage 3 – 05h00 – 16h00
- Stage 4 – 16h00 – 00h00
Friday, 28 October
- Stage 4 – 00h00 – 05h00
- Stage 2 – 05h00 – 16h00
- Stage 3 – 16h00 – 00h00
Saturday, 29 October
- Stage 3 – 00h00 – 05h00
- Stage 1 – 05h00 – 16h00
- Stage 2 – 16h00 – 00h00
Sunday, 30 October
- Stage 2 – 00h00 – 05h00
- Stage 2 – 16h00 – 00h00
The group said that the continued load shedding is necessary as its emergency reserves are almost depleted.
“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,” it said.
Eskom will publish a further update as soon as any significant changes occur.
Since Tuesday evening, Eskom teams have returned a generating unit each at Duvha, Kendal and Medupi power stations to service.
The utility currently has 5,683MW on planned maintenance, while another 1, 585MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
Debt takeover
Load shedding is expected to be a part of life in South Africa for the foreseeable future, with new energy builds still years away from coming online to relieve the country’s grid.
Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer has warned that it will be around for at least 18 months, with analysts warning that higher stages are expected in the near term.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana on Wednesday (26 October) announced that the government will be taking on a significant portion of Eskom’s R400 billion debt, which should go a long way in assisting the power utility in sorting out its financial crisis, which is also impacting its ability to maintain its ageing fleet.
While the full quantum of the debt takeover is not yet known, Godongwana said it would be between one- to two-thirds of total debt, giving a range of R130 billion to R260 billion.
“Importantly, the programme will include strict conditions required of Eskom and other stakeholders before and during the debt transfer. These conditions will address Eskom’s structural challenges by managing its costs, addressing municipal and household arrears due to the utility, and providing greater clarity and transparency in tariff pricing,” said Godongwana.
In addition, the conditions will be informed by a Treasury-led independent review of Eskom’s operations, in particular the performance of its generation fleet, the finance lead added.
Schedules
For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town (PDF)
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.
Read: Some South Africans get an extra hour of load shedding – here’s why
Loading ...