Get ready for stage 4 load shedding this week – here’s the new schedule
Power utility Eskom has announced that load shedding will be switched between various stages this week, but will be at stage 4 in the evenings.
Stage 1 load shedding will continue on Sunday (10 September) until 16h00, thereafter stage 4 outages will be in effect.
On Monday and Tuesday, load shedding will be downgraded to stage 3 between 05h00 and 16h00, and on Wednesday outages will be at stage 2 during those hours.
All schedules are subject to change at any point.
The current plan is outlined below.
Breakdowns are currently at 16 646MW of generating capacity while the capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 5 107MW.
Over a period of 24 hours, no power is being imported from Cahora Bassa due to planned maintenance. This is expected to return to normal levels tomorrow morning, Eskom said.
In the same period, a generating unit at Tutuka Power Station was taken offline for repairs and a generating unit each at Duvha, Kendal, Kriel and two generating units at Arnot power stations were returned to service.
The delay in returning to service a generating unit each at Hendrina, Kendal, Matimba and Matla power stations is also contributing to the current capacity constraints.
During a press briefing on Sunday, electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa attributed the recent escalation in load shedding to a trifecta of issues: demand remains high and often unpredictable; Eskom has suffered several outages; and planned maintenance has ramped up following the winter cut.
While the minister expressed confidence that the electricity situation will improve heading into the last quarter of the year – as the Kusile Power Station will be adding much-needed capacity to the grid, providing a buffer for increased maintenance elsewhere – he did warn that the situation is likely to remain volatile until then.
Ramokgopa said that the government and Eskom will not compromise on the ramping up planned maintenance, which will keep the grid under pressure with little room for failure.
“If (planned maintenance) coincides with a number of units failing on their own, then you are exposed. And the only option available to us is intensified load shedding.”
“It is a calculated risk. We are going to do this the right way; we are going to fix these units. It’s a short-term pain for long-term gain,” he said.
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: Electricity minister warns of more load shedding pain – until Kusile is back up
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