Eskom extends load shedding break – here’s the latest schedule
Power utility Eskom says that load shedding will be suspended for another day, taking the current streak of no power outages to more than four days.
Load shedding will now remain suspended until 16h00 on Wednesday.
When load shedding returns, it will be at stage 1 in the evenings (16h00 to 05h00) and then will again be suspended during the day (05h00 to 16h00).
This pattern will repeat until further notice, Eskom said.
Tuesday, 24 October
- Suspended: 00h00 to 00h00
Wednesday, 25 October
- Suspended: 00h00 to 16h00
- Stage 1: 16h00 to 00h00
Thursday, 26 October
- Stage 1: 00h00 to 05h00
- Suspended: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 1: 16h00 to 00h00
The utility said that the continued suspension of load shedding is due to sufficient emergency generation reserves and the anticipated evening peak demand remaining low.
For Tuesday, demand is expected to peak at 27,482MW.
Analysis of the data published by Eskom on its fleet performance shows that the group’s energy availability factor has taken a positive turn, with plants performing better than the same time in 2021 and 2022.
Breakdowns have also improved – which is key to the group’s plan to keep load shedding contained in the summer months.
However, the data also shows that energy supplies aren’t significantly higher, and that much of the improvement seen in the system comes from lower demand.
Regardless, the suspensions and much lower stages of load shedding have led to a noticeable turn in the long-term trend data for outages in the country.
For the first time this year, the projections for total blackout hours has fallen under a cumulative 80 hours, currently standing at 79.6 days.
This is a massive retreat of 21 days from the high of 101 days predicted at the end of May.
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: Big shift for load shedding in South Africa – with some of the best news all year
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