Eskom extends stage 6 load shedding for the rest of the week – here is the new schedule
Eskom has announced that it will be escalating load shedding to stage 6 on Thursday and Friday – with load shedding expected to continue over the weekend.
This comes as a result of the continued unlawful strike by workers, it said in a statement on Thursday afternoon (30 June).
This changes the previously announced schedule, which would have seen load shedding at stage 4 on Thursday. The new schedule is as follows:
Thursday (30 June)
- Stage 6 load shedding from 14h00 to 00h00
Friday (1 July)
- Stage 4 load shedding from 00h00 – 05h00
- Stage 6 load shedding 05h00 – 00h00
Eskom also said that load shedding will be at least stage 4 over the whole weekend.
“The high levels of staff absenteeism and intimidation of working employees in some of the power stations is still rife. This has made it difficult to conduct routine maintenance and other operational requirements, which will further impact the reliability of generation units,” it said.
“Due to the unlawful and unprotected strike, which has caused widespread disruption to Eskom’s power plants, Eskom is still unable to return some generators to service. Eskom is compelled to take this unprecedented step to conserve emergency generation capacity to safeguard the power system.”
There remains a risk that the stage of load shedding may have to change at any time, depending on the state of the plant, Eskom said.
The power utility said that it currently has 3,161MW on planned maintenance, while another 17,467MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
“The unlawful strike has a serious detrimental impact not only on Eskom but also on the broader South African public and economy. Union members, who work in a designated essential service, have a legal and moral obligation to return to work in order to safeguard South Africa from further load shedding,” it said.
Due to the continued unlawful strike Stage 6 loadshedding will be implemented at 14:00 until
midnight. Stage 6 will again be implemented from 05:00 until midnight on Friday. pic.twitter.com/skHlIYxC1k— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) June 30, 2022
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: MTN working on a plan to solve battery recharging woes during load shedding
Loading ...
