Eskom has announced that it will implement stage 2 load shedding on Thursday (5 November), from 16h00.<\/p>\n
“Eskom regrets that Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 16h00 to 23h00 today due to a shortage of capacity,” it said.<\/p>\n
The struggling power utility has managed to avoid load shedding for almost a month, with the last round hitting early in November.<\/p>\n
Load shedding has been a lingering threat in South Africa since Eskom’s systems collapsed in the first quarter of the year, doing massive damage to the economy.<\/p>\n
Bloomberg reported that the impact of load shedding on the economy ranged between R1 billion and R5 billion a day.<\/p>\n
The Department of Energy, National Treasury and the Department of Public Enterprises have been working since then to maintain the volatile balance between supply and demand on the network.<\/p>\n
Before winter, Eskom outlined a plan to keep the lights on for the remainder of 2019; a plan that hinged on unplanned maintenance on generating units never exceeding 9,500MW being taken offline.<\/p>\n
However, over the last few weeks, this has exceeded 10,000MW.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Thursday, Eskom said its system was constrained and vulnerable, with generating plant performing at very low levels of reliability. Unplanned breakdowns were at 12,300MW at 10h00.<\/p>\n
For those living in South Africa\u2019s major metros, here is where you can check to see when you will be hit:<\/p>\n
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on\u00a0loadshedding.eskom.co.za.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n
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