Joburg’s 4-hour blocks are back! City Power implements new load shedding schedule

The City of Johannesburg’s power utility, City Power, has announced on Tuesday, 2 January that it has finally resolved the “frequent two-hour load shedding” issue which has marred its takeover from Eskom at the end of 2023.

This after scores of the utility’s customers ended up having to deal with being hit by two 2-hour blocks of load shedding in quick succession of each other since it took over the load shedding operations in some areas of the City of Gold.

ALSO READ: City Power denies it imposed stage 8 load shedding on residents

City Power: ‘Extended periods without load shedding’

At the time, City Power cited “technical problems” associated with the new load shedding blocks, which were split into 2-hour blocks after the 4-hour blocks which were in place before.

According to the utility’s latest updates posted on X (formerly Twitter), City Power customers will now “enjoy extended periods without load shedding”.

City Power cites higher stages of Eskom load shedding as cause

City Power said it would be returning to 4-hour blocks of load shedding during higher stages.

“While (the 2-hour block change was welcomed during lower stages where customers were shed only for two hours, with some going for a day or two without being load-shed, the problem arose when Eskom bumped the schedule to higher stages from Stage 5 to 8, which saw the 2-hour blocks repeating frequently, often with some customers shed twice in six hours.

“The reality we find ourselves in during load shedding is that the higher the stages, the more frequently the blocks are shed, with some shed for at least 10 hours in Stage 6,” it said in a statement.

Here’s the new schedule as 4-hour blocks return with immediate effect

The utility said it would bring back the 4-hour blocks of load shedding during the higher stages (5 to 8) instead of implementing successive 2-hour blocks in a short space of time.

It claims that its new load shedding programme of a 4-hour block similar to what customers experienced under Eskom, would cancel the 2-hour block problem in its entirety.

Take a look at the new schedules which are now in effect HERE.