Power utility Eskom says it will have to extend stage 2 load shedding on Thursday to continue overnight.
In addition to the load shedding currently underway, Eskom said that stage 2 load shedding will be implemented throughout Thursday night. It was previously expected to end at 22h00.
Stage 2 load shedding will then continue to be implemented from 05h00 to 22h00 daily, as previously announced, until Saturday night.
“The additional load shedding tonight is required to manage and preserve the pumped storage dam levels, part of the emergency generation reserves, which have been utilised extensively over the past four days,” it said.
The utility said it currently has 4,588MW on planned maintenance, while another 15,204MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
The group recently published its load shedding outlook for the rest of the year, noting that it has to keep unplanned outages below 13,000MW to minimise rolling blackouts.
In a more load shedding-heavy scenario, if outages remain above 14,500MW, stage 2 load shedding will be frequent for the foreseeable future. If the power utility is unable to keep outages under 16,000MW, load shedding at higher stages becomes the standard.
Eskom’s load shedding outlook for the rest of the year
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: Joburg has a plan to move away from Eskom and load shedding
