Eskom suspends load shedding – here’s the new schedule

Power utility Eskom says that an improvement in generating capacity has allowed it to suspend load shedding on Monday during the day – but blackouts are likely to return in the evening.
Load shedding has been suspended since 11h30, Eskom said, and will continue to be on pause until 16h00. Thereafter, stage 3 load shedding will return.
Stage 3 load shedding will resume at 16h00 until 05h00 on Tuesday.
Thereafter, stage 1 load shedding will be implemented until 16h00, followed by stage 3 once again.
This pattern will be implemented daily until further notice, Eskom said.
Monday, 21 August
- Suspended: until 16h00
- Stage 3: 16h00 to 00h00
Tuesday, 22 August
- Stage 3: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 1: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 3: 16h00 to 00h00
Wednesday, 23 August
- Stage 3: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 1: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 3: 16h00 to 00h00
The suspension comes “due to an improved generation system, as well as full recovery in emergency generation reserves,” the group said.
Eskom has been alternating between stage 1 load shedding during the day and stage 3 load shedding in the evenings since late last week.
While load shedding has been ongoing near-permanently, this has been an improvement on the high levels (up to stage 6) last seen in mid-July.
Despite the relatively lower stages of load shedding, South Africa now has a framework in case stage 16 load shedding hits.
The National energy regulator Nersa released a consultation document for public comment, which aims to restructure load shedding in South Africa.
It is proposed that the way load shedding is calculated changes to look at the percentage of demand shed instead of the number of thousands of MWs.
The new system allows for stage 16 load shedding, which would shed 80% of demand. However, Chair of the management committee of the National Rationalised Specifications Association of South Africa, Vally Padayachee, said that South Africa will likely never get to that level of power cuts.
South Africa’s power situation is expected to get better leading into the end of the year, with units at Kusile anticipated to return to operation and unit 1 of Koeber expected to come online in early November.
However, unit 2 of the nuclear plant is expected to go offline for maintenance soon thereafter, undercutting any benefit seen by unit 1’s return.
Energy experts warn that load shedding is likely to remain part of daily life in South Africa for the foreseeable future, despite lofty promises from politicians that rolling blackouts could end sooner than they think.
Read: How South Africa’s new 16 stages of load shedding will work