Businessinsider.co.za | Stage 6 load shedding: what it means, and how bad it is

• Eskom implemented Stage 6 load shedding late on Wednesday morning, citing "a high number of breakdowns since midnight".
• It had moved to Stage 4 earlier in the day.
• Here is what the different stages of load shedding mean.
• For more stories go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.

Eskom implemented Stage 6 load shedding – immediately, and until further notice – late on Wednesday morning.

Stage 6 is necessary "due to a high number of breakdowns since midnight, as well as the requirement to strictly preserve the remaining emergency generation reserves," it said.

Earlier in the day, it moved to Stage 4 load shedding with three hours' notice, because of "further breakdowns and delayed returns of generating units to service".

If Stage 6 is maintained for a 24-hour period, most people will have their electricity turned off for 6 hours per day.

Eskom first implemented Stage 6 in December 2019, a level of electricity rationing that had, until then, been strictly theoretical.

See also | Six ways to deal with Stage 6 load shedding, including getting food orders in early

At the time, Eskom provided 20 minutes notice for the shift between Stage and Stage 6.

Operational plans have been made for load shedding up to Stage 8, as a contingency measure should that become necessary to prevent a national blackout when demand exceeds supply, taking down the grid entirely.

Here is what the different stages of load shedding mean.

At every stage of load shedding, Eskom rations the country by a further 1,000MW of power, the equivalent of 1,000,000 kilowatts (A microwave or kettle uses around 1 kilowatt, so one way to think of the stages is that at every escalation, Eskom switches off a million kettles.)

At Stage 1, South Africa as a whole is forced to save 1,000MW, or a million kettles, which – depending on the choices of local governments – mean either short outages for individual electricity users or blackouts in only small parts of cities.

At Stage 2 the national grid is short 2,000MW, or two million kettles, at stage 3 rationing reaches 3,000MW, and so on.

How suburbs and towns are affected by every stage depends on a range of factors, including what time of day the electricity emergency is declared. The exact social and economic impact is hard to estimate, and guesses range widely .

However, by Stage 4 the shortage is equivalent to nearly the full installed generating capacity of the giant Medupi power station.

At Stage 5 Eskom is unable to supply as much electricity as South Africa has committed to buying from the giant Inga 3 hydropower project in the Democratic Republic of Congo – after doubling its initial offtake intention – and at Stage 6 the rationing is the equivalent of all the power Ethiopia hopes to generate by harnessing the Blue Nile.

Stage 7 sheds as much electricity as all South Africa's initial 47 independent producers of renewable energy produced.

At Stage 8, Eskom estimates, the average South African will be supplied with power for 50% of the time, with connections turned off for 12 hours out of every 24.

* This article was first published in June 2022, in the context of then-looming Stage 6 rationing. It was updated in December to reflect the  new context at that time.