Eskom drops stage 6 load shedding – and delivers a new schedule

 ·30 Nov 2023

Power utility Eskom says that it will drop stage 6 load shedding, and move to a new three-stage schedule between stage 3 and stage 5.

Due to improved generation and recovery of emergency reserves, stage 3 load shedding will be in effect from 10h00 to 16h00 on Thursday (30 November).

This will then move up to stage 4 between 16h00 and 20h00, and then stage 5 from 20h00 to 05h00 on Friday.

Thursday, 30 November

  • Stage 6: 00h00 to 05h00
  • Stage 5: 05h00 to 10h00
  • Stage 3: 10h00 to 16h00
  • Stage 4: 16h00 to 20h00
  • Stage 5: 20h00 to 00h00

This is the temporary schedule until Eskom communicates the forward-looking schedule later in the day.

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.

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: Eskom is on a slippery slope

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