Eskom launches revised load shedding plan

ESKOM has announced a revised load shedding schedule to be implemented on Tuesday 7 April in a desperate bid to avoid a total collapse of the country’s power system ahead of winter.

eThekwini Municipality received this directive from the struggling power utility, which will impose the longer power cuts to allow reserves to be built up for an anticipated tough and cold couple of months ahead.

The revised load shedding schedule will be effective from Tuesday, 7 April. The new schedule entails switching off widespread areas and high voltage substations, and seeks to minimise interruptions and introduce more fairness in the allocation of blocks. It will also reduce the incidence of customer block changes due to network faults.

According to a municipal official, who wanted to remain anonymous, Eskom will inform the municipality of how much energy needs to be shed when consumption is at a critical level, and only then (between 10 to 15 minutes before) will they know what stage of load shedding needs to be implemented.

“Therefore, residents and businesses will have to refer to the Eskom website to view which stage of load shedding is being implemented. eThekwini Municipality has also drawn up a revised load shedding schedule, which is available on our website for viewing,” she said.

The most likely period of load shedding is 6am to 10pm, Monday to Saturday. The new schedule will now consist of four stages:

Stage 1: Residential/commercial blocks – load shedding once every second day.

Stage 2: Residential/commercial blocks – load shedding once every day.

Stage 3: Residential/commercial/industrial blocks – load shedding once every day.

Stage 4: Residential/commercial/industrial blocks – load shedding once every day and twice every second day.

All blocks are scheduled for two-hour outages, with an additional 30 minutes’ contingency to cater for switching. Sometimes technical difficulties in restoring the electricity may occur, and should any areas remain off for a substantial amount of time after the block has been scheduled to be restored, then that incident must be treated as a fault and reported to the Electricity Contact Centre on 080 131 3111.

During load shedding customers are urged to switch off appliances to prevent overload trips, which may result in extended outages. Switching off sensitive electrical appliances before power is restored also prevents the risk of voltage spikes and subsequent damage to equipment when power returns.

The load shedding schedule can be found on www.durban.gov.za

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