Eskom to suspend load shedding every day until further notice

Power utility Eskom says that recoveries in generation capacity will allow it to suspend load shedding every day until the evening peak.

The group said that load shedding will be suspended between midnight and 16h00 on Tuesday (6 June), followed by stage 3 load shedding from 16h00 today until midnight.

This pattern will repeat until further notice, it said.

“Eskom will publish another update as soon as any significant changes occur,” it said.

The schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, 6 June 

• Suspended: until 16h00
• Stage 3: 16h00 to 00h00

Wednesday, 7 June 

• Suspended: 00h00 to 16h00
• Stage 3: 16h00 to 00h00

Repeat until further notice

The group is suspending load shedding dispute breakdowns being above its planned scenarios. This is coming at the cost of planned maintenance, however, which has been significantly reduced.

Breakdowns are currently at 16,056MW of generating capacity while the generating capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 2,407MW.

Over the past 24 hours, a generating unit each at Kriel and Majuba power stations were returned to service.

In the same period, a generation unit each at Duvha, Hendrina, Kendal, Lethabo and Matla power stations were taken out of service due to breakdowns.

The further delays in returning to service a generating unit at Arnot, Camden and Hendrina power stations are contributing to the current capacity constraints.

According to its winter outlook, if Eskom can keep outages below 15,000MW, its base plan for winter shows it will be able to keep load shedding between stage 3 and stage 5.

However, if any serious breakdowns happen, or any other disruption, the threat of pushing to higher stages is still there.

The same risk exists if demand gets pushed up for any reason. Historically, South Africa’s winter demand has pushed as high as 37,000MW. In this scenario, four additional stages of load shedding would be required.

The latest demand figures have shown reduced demand, however, at around 32,000MW.

Eskom has been on a massive drive to curb demand, getting more groups and companies on board with its demand-side management contracting, and driving public information campaigns to get households to cut their electricity use during peak hours.

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: This load shedding trend has completely reversed in South Africa