Stage 6 load shedding is back – here’s the new schedule

3 years ago 2

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Power utility Eskom says that load shedding will be pushed to stage 6 on Wednesday (12 April).

The power utility was forced to implement all-day stage 5 load shedding earlier in the day due to higher-than-anticipated demand.

The City of Cape Town said that its residents would be spared from stage 6 load shedding where possible, with a reduction to stage 4 during the day, until 22h00.

Here is the new schedule

South Africa has managed to avoid stage 6 load shedding since February but has maintained near-permanent load shedding for all but one day of the year – mostly at stage 4.

Energy experts and South Africa’s minister of electricity have warned that load shedding is expected to get worse in the coming winter months.

“I’ll be brutally honest. It’s going to be an exceptionally difficult winter. We know that in summer conditions, the deficit is 6,000 megawatts. When we go into winter, the peak can go up to 37,000 megawatts,” the minister said.

He added that his department, in collaboration with Eskom, is doing everything it can to avoid the worst-case scenario of stages beyond stage 6 load shedding.

Stage 6 is currently the highest official stage of national load shedding implemented thus far – however, when taking into account load curtailment, far more than 6,000MW has been taken offline. Eskom itself admitted that the group dipped into stage 7 for a period.

The power utility is currently piloting measures to help reduce demand on the grid, including expanding its load curtailment contracts to smaller power consumers like small businesses and residential areas.

Schedules

For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:

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: South Africa warned of load shedding ‘beyond stage 6’ as winter approaches