{"id":768286,"date":"2024-04-17T10:26:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T08:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=768286"},"modified":"2024-04-17T10:26:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T08:26:53","slug":"new-load-shedding-stages-for-south-africa-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/768286\/new-load-shedding-stages-for-south-africa-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"New load shedding stages for South Africa &#8211; what you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The National Rationalised Specifications (NRS) Association management committee chairperson, Vally Padayachee, says it is highly unlikely that South Africa will ever reach stage 16 load shedding, but the new stages approved by energy regulator Nersa mean that there is now a plan if we ever do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nersa approved and published the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/NERSA-Approved-Version-of-NRS-048-9-2023-Edition-3.pdf\"><strong>third edition of the NRS 048-9 Code of Practice<\/strong><\/a> at the start of April, introducing some changes to the load shedding structure in the country &#8211; the most notable of which is the extension of load shedding stages to stage 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new load shedding structure splits up the full load (minus the 20% critical load) into load shedding blocks, with stage 16 being the new maximum where, effectively, power will be out for a full 32-hour cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"IPOpXK07GV\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/766565\/new-load-shedding-stages-for-south-africa-the-big-changes-and-the-big-problems\/\">New load shedding stages for South Africa &#8211; the big changes, and the big problems<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;New load shedding stages for South Africa &#8211; the big changes, and the big problems&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/766565\/new-load-shedding-stages-for-south-africa-the-big-changes-and-the-big-problems\/embed\/#?secret=ctUfapaZrS#?secret=IPOpXK07GV\" data-secret=\"IPOpXK07GV\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In a briefing this week explaining the new edition of the code, Padayachee said the document would ensure that South Africa&#8217;s systems operators\u2014at Eskom and at the municipal level\u2014have a plan for emergency situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said that, prior to the new code, operators only had measures to assist them up to stage 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;If we went into a situation beyond stage 8, people in the operations centres would have gone into &#8217;emergency and contingency mode&#8217; to manage the required load shedding stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In an emergency situation beyond stage 8\u2014which we cannot rule out, notwithstanding Eskom&#8217;s current good performance\u2014it becomes a bit more complex because you have less electricity load to &#8216;play&#8217; with,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Even though these people (system operators) are very competent, the propensity to make errors in an emergency situation increases.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the new load-shedding stages, South Africa has now &#8220;significantly mitigated the propensity of human error in people working in Eskom operation and municipal operation centres&#8221;, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the move from stage 8 to stage 16 is unlikely, the new stages can be used or relied on to assist in an emergency situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Padayachee said that since the code has been approved and published, it is now legally mandated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new stages are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table\"><tbody><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Stage<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Load shedding<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Load curtailment<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">1<\/td><td>5% of demand<\/td><td>10% reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">2<\/td><td>10% of demand<\/td><td>10% reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">3<\/td><td>15% of demand<\/td><td>15% reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">4<\/td><td>20% of demand<\/td><td>20% reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">5<\/td><td>25% of demand<\/td><td>30% reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">6<\/td><td>30% of demand<\/td><td>30% reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">7<\/td><td>35% of demand<\/td><td>40% reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">8<\/td><td>40% of demand<\/td><td>40% reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">9<\/td><td>45% of demand<\/td><td>50% reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">10<\/td><td>50% of demand<\/td><td>50% reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">11<\/td><td>55% of demand<\/td><td>Essential only<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">12<\/td><td>60% of demand<\/td><td>Essential only<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">13<\/td><td>65% of demand<\/td><td>Essential only<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">14<\/td><td>70% of demand<\/td><td>Essential only<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">15<\/td><td>75% of demand<\/td><td>Essential only<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16<\/td><td>80% of demand<\/td><td>Essential only<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The table below outlines how households will experience load shedding in terms of hours off. The blocks of time out increase by 2 hours until there are four 6-hour blocks at stage 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From stage 13, the blocks start merging, and customers would experience a full 14 hours without power (a 6-hour block immediately following an 8-hour block). By stage 15, this merges again to 30 hours off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Stage<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Blocks (32 hour cycle)<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Hours off<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 1<\/td><td>1 x 2-hour blocks<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">2<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 2<\/td><td>2 x 2-hour blocks<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">4<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 3 <\/td><td>3 x 2-hour blocks<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">6<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 4<\/td><td>4 x 2-hour blocks<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">8<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 5<\/td><td>1 x 4-hour block, 3 x 2-hour blocks <\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">10<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 6<\/td><td>2 x 4-hour blocks, 2 x 2-hour blocks<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">12<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 7<\/td><td>3 x 4-hour blocks, 1 x 2-hour block<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">14<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 8<\/td><td>4 x 4-hour blocks<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 9<\/td><td>1 x 6-hour block, 3 x 4-hour blocks<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">18<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 10<\/td><td>2 x 6-hour blocks, 2 x 4-hour blocks<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">20<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 11<\/td><td>3 x 6-hour blocks, 1 x 4-hour block<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">22<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 12<\/td><td>4 x 6-hour blocks<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">24<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 13<\/td><td>1 x 14-hour block, 2 x 6-hour block<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">26<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 14<\/td><td>2 x 14-hour blocks<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">28<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 15<\/td><td>1 x 30 hour block<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">30<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stage 16<\/td><td>Power off<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">32<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/768109\/the-truth-behind-eskoms-load-shedding-success\/\">The truth behind Eskom\u2019s load shedding success<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While a move to stage 16 is highly unlikely, South Africa needed a plan for if it ever went there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":704925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-768286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768298,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768286\/revisions\/768298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}