Stage 5 to suspended – here is the load shedding schedule for the weekend
Eskom has announced the load shedding stages for the coming weekend, delivering a dark start to December for South Africa.
Following the de-escalation of load shedding this morning, the group said that it will stick to a new three-stage block for load shedding, moving between stage 3 during the day (05h00 to 16h00), stage 4 in the evenings (16h00 to 20h00) and stage 5 overnight (20h00 to 05h00).
This pattern is expected to be in effect from Thursday (30 November) through to Saturday (2 December), with the utility hoping to suspend load shedding on Sunday during the day.
On Sunday, the evening stage is expected to be lower at stage 2, before ramping up to stage 4 overnight into the new week.
The schedule is as follows:
Thursday, 30 November
- Stage 3: until 16h00
- Stage 4: 16h00 to 00h00
Friday, 1 December
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 3: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 4: 16h00 to 20h00
- Stage 5: 20h00 to 00h00
Saturday, 2 December
- Stage 5: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 3: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 4: 16h00 to 20h00
- Stage 5: 20h00 to 00h00
Sunday, 3 December
- Stage 5: 00h00 to 05h00
- Suspended: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 2: 16h00 to 20h00
- Stage 4: 20h00 to 00h00
Unplanned outages have reduced to 13,513MW of generating capacity, while the capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 6,596MW.
In the past 24 hours, 800 MW returned to service, and approximately 3,700MW of generating capacity is anticipated to return to service by Sunday evening, Eskom said.
The latest easing of load shedding follows a week full of stage 6 outages, which the group was forced to implement after it drained its emergency reserves.
According to analysis of its plant performance, it has become apparent that the group has been using what it can to boost its pumped storage levels, but ended up hitting diesel shortages.
The power utility has also had to contend with spikes in user demand and persistently high unplanned outages.
Eskom’s load forecast for the evening peak demand is 28,128MW – higher than the 26,000MW seen in recent weeks.
Schedules
For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town (PDF)
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
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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