Last night Eskom implemented load shedding in stage 3 in some areas due to high demand and urgent maintenance at some power stations. The stage 3 load shedding was cancelled at 11pm and the company thanked all customers who heeded the call to save electricity.
Interpreting Eskom load-shedding stages
Load shedding is used under emergency conditions for limited periods. Three schedules have now been developed based on risk and to ensure that outages occur in a fair and equitable manner:
Stage 1 allows for up to 1 000 Megawatts of the national load to be shed.
Stage 2 allows for up to 2 000 Megawatts of the national load to be shed.
Stage 3 allows for up to 4 000 Megawatts of the national load to be shed.
Load shedding will be implemented in most instances in two hour blocks (with an additional 30 minutes for switching between blocks) during the period 5am to 9:30pm. A customer therefore may be without electricity for two and a half hours.
The company stated that the power system remains constrained and will remain so for the rest of this week. “Any extra load or faults in the system may necessitate the need to go into load shedding. We therefore urge all electricity customers to reduce their consumption in order to reduce the severity of load shedding. Eskom calls on all customers to reduce the load on the electricity grid by urgently switching off geysers, air conditioners, pool pumps and all non-essential appliances throughout the day, which will reduce electricity demand.”
Eskom called on commercial customers, particularly shopping centres and office blocks, who can also make a big difference by switching off non-essential lights and not leaving office equipment such as photocopiers and computers in standby mode after hours.
Eskom customers are advised to check the load shedding schedules which are available on the Eskom website https://loadshedding.eskom.co.za . Municipal customers were urged to contact their local authorities.
Details: 0860 037 566.
