Eskom hopes to ease load shedding this weekend – here’s the new schedule
Power utility Eskom says that stage 4 load shedding will persist for most of the weekend, with a hope to reduce outages to stage 3 for Saturday afternoon.
The group said that stage 4 load shedding will continue to be implemented until 16h00 on Thursday (2 March), thereafter, Stage 5 load shedding will be implemented until 05h00 on Friday.
Stage 4 load shedding is expected to be in effect for the whole weekend, except for the Saturday afternoon slot. A further update will be published as soon as any significant changes occur, Eskom said.
Thursday, 2 March
- Stage 4: until 16h00
- Stage 5: 16h00 to 00h00
Friday, 3 March
- Stage 5: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 4: 05h00 to 00h00
Saturday, 4 March
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 3: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 4: 16h00 to 00h00
Sunday, 5 March
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage TBD
In the past 24 hours, a generating unit each at Camden, Lethabo and Tutuka power stations were returned to service.
Breakdowns at a unit each at Duvha, Lethabo, and Majuba power stations caused units to be taken offline for repairs. The delay in returning a unit each to service at Kendal and Duvha power stations are contributing to the current capacity constraints, Eskom said.
Breakdowns currently amount to 17,149MW of generating capacity while 4,950MW of generating capacity is out of service for planned maintenance.
South Africa has suffered through 123 consecutive days of load shedding since late October 2022.
Analysis of load shedding trends in the country shows that despite all promises to the contrary, rolling blackouts are getting increasingly worse and unless there some serious interventions to change course, the country will likely hit stage 7 and 8 load shedding by August 2023.
The national government has assured South Africans that plans are in place to add capacity to the grid, but none of these plans are short-term or offer quick relief.
Eskom, meanwhile, is in the process of reviewing its load shedding schedules to make room for higher stages, should the need arise.
Markets, businesses and South Africans at large are waiting for president Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint his new ‘minister of electricity’, who will have the unenviable task of being solely responsible for ending the load shedding crisis.
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.
Loading ...