Eskom moving back to stage 5 load shedding – here’s the new schedule
After a brief stint at stage 3 load shedding, power utility Eskom says it will return to stage 5 load shedding on Wednesday.
Stage 3 load shedding will continue to be implemented until 16h00 on Tuesday, the group said, but will move up to stage 4 in the evening.
Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented until 16h00 on Wednesday before moving up to stage 5 overnight.
The pattern of stage 4 during the day and stage 5 in the evening will continue until further notice, it said.
Eskom will publish another update as soon as any significant changes occur.
Tuesday, 28 February
- Stage 3: until 16h00
- Stage 4: 16h00 to 00h00
Wednesday, 1 March
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 16h00
- Stage 5: 16h00 to 00h00
Thursday, 2 March
- Stage 5: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 4: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 5: 16h00 to 00h00
Friday, 3 March
- Stage 5: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 4: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage TBD: 16h00 to 00h00
Over the past 24 hours, a generating unit each at the Camden, Kriel, Matla and Matimba power stations were returned to service.
Breakdowns at a unit each at Duvha, Lethabo, Majuba and Tutuka power stations caused units to be taken offline for repairs.
The delay in returning a unit each to service at Arnot, Camden, Duvha, and Kendal power stations are contributing to the current capacity constraints, Eskom said.
Breakdowns currently amount to 19,031MW of generating capacity, while 4,174MW of generating capacity is out of service for planned maintenance.
South Africa has experienced near-permanent load shedding since September 2022 and has suffered through rolling blackouts – usually at high levels – every day of 2023 so far.
While social groups and political parties have approached the courts in a bid to bring the outages to a stop, Eskom and former CEO Andre de Ruyter have warned that interfering with the load shedding schedules would likely lead to a grid collapse and total blackout.
Load shedding is implemented as a last resort to protect the grid from collapse – forcing Eskom to keep the lights on would not address the underlying issue of a lack of generating capacity.
Plans are in place to add more capacity to the grid, but unfortunately, none of these are short-term quick fixes, and the country is likely to keep experiencing rolling blackouts for the next two years at least.
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has gazetted new regulations under the national state of disaster to fast-track new generation builds and unlock resources to try and mitigate the impact of load shedding.
These are the new powers given to government under the load shedding state of disaster
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.
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