Load shedding pushing higher after Eskom units go down
Power utility Eskom says that load shedding will be pushed to stage 2 during the day on Tuesday, after it lost three generation units overnight.
Stage 2 load shedding will be in effect from 05h00 to 16h00, it said, with a further update to follow in the afternoon.
The group had previously intended to keep the load shedding schedule on a rotation between stage 1 during the day and stage 3 in the evening.
Tuesday, 29 August
- Stage 3: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 2: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage TBD: 16h00 to 00h00
The sudden loss of three units marks the first time in recent weeks that the utility has been forced to abruptly alter the load shedding schedule.
At a media engagement last week (24 August), acting CEO Calib Cassim said that the utility has been aiming to keep the load shedding schedules as stable as possible so businesses and South Africans can better prepare and plan their lives around the outages.
The utility has slowly been improving overall performance and has even managed to suspend outages for a time during periods of low demand.
However, the sudden changes serve as a reminder that the grid remains extremely volatile and the company continues to operate on a knife’s edge.
When asked how long South Africa will continue living in this situation – waiting each day to hear whether load shedding will be up or down, off or on – Cassim said that the situation should improve in 2024.
More generating capacity is expected to return in the last few months of 2023, with the return of three units at Kusile and several other interventions on the demand-side yielding results. However, it’s in 2024 that many new projects will be coming online.
Until then, South Africa will have to continue dealing with load shedding and the ever-present possibility that things can change at any time.
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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