Eskom to suspend load shedding this weekend – here is the new schedule
Power utility Eskom says that recoveries in generation and expected lower demand over the weekend will allow it to suspend load shedding during the day.
Load shedding is expected to alternate between suspensions and stage 2 on Saturday before dropping to stage 1 on Sunday evening.
“Eskom will closely monitor the power system and provide an update for the week ahead on Sunday,” it said.
The schedule is as follows:
Friday, 16 February
- Stage 2: until 00h00
Saturday, 17 February
- Stage 2: 00h00to 05h00
- Suspended: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 2: 16h00 to 00h00
Sunday, 18 February
- Stage 2: 00h00 to 05h00
- Suspended: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 1: 16h00 to 00h00
Unplanned outages have reduced to 13,733MW of generating capacity, while the capacity out of service
for planned maintenance is 8,121MW.
The group said it is working to return a total of 2,440MW of generating capacity to service by Sunday.
Load shedding has been gradually eased this week following a sudden return to stage 6 outages last weekend.
Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, said this week that the main cause of the stage 6 load shedding was due to several boiler tube leaks which took out many generating units – while the utility’s higher-than-normal maintenance regime left little room to account for outages.
Ramokgopa said the maintenance is part of a “calculated risk” strategy, where the power utility has to take units offline for repairs – but leaves the grid vulnerable to shocks if other units fail or something else happens to cut supply.
He said that the plan is to gradually reduce maintenance from March, heading into May.
“From March of 2024, we will begin reducing planned maintenance from the current 6,000MW to 5,000MW in April 2024 and to around 3,500MW in May 2024 – a threshold that will be sustained during the winter demand period,” he said.
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: Winter is coming: The plan to curb load shedding starts next month
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