Stage 3 and 4 load shedding this week – here is the schedule

Power utility Eskom says it will implement all-day load shedding this week at stage 3 and stage 4.

Stage 3 load shedding will continue to be implemented during the day between 00h00 and 16h00, escalating to stage 4 during the evening peaks between 16h00 and 00h00.

A further update will be published on Wednesday afternoon, or as soon as there are any significant changes, it said.

“Eskom is still experiencing constraints from its diesel suppliers that is affecting the availability of bulk diesel to the Ankerlig and Gourikwa Open Cycle Gas Turbines, which have a combined capacity of 2,000MW.

“While we expect diesel deliveries from Tuesday onwards, should this uncertainty of supply persist, higher stages of load shedding may be required,” it said.

While some generation units are anticipated to return to service, it is necessary to continue the load shedding to conserve emergency generation reserves, Eskom said.

Since Friday a generation unit each at Camden and Kriel power stations were taken offline for repairs. Another generating unit each at Kriel and Kusile power stations were returned to service.

Eskom said it currently has 5,897MW on planned maintenance, while another 16,739MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.

It recently published its load shedding outlook for the rest of the year, noting that it has to keep unplanned outages below 13,000MW to minimise rolling blackouts.

In a more load shedding-heavy scenario, if outages remain above 14,500MW, stage 2 load shedding will be frequent for the foreseeable future. If the power utility cannot keep outages under 16,000MW, load shedding at higher stages becomes the standard.

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.

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