Eskom to suspend load shedding from Saturday – Here’s your schedule

Eskom has announced that due to an anticipated lower weekend electricity demand and adequate emergency reserves, Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 5pm on Friday until 5am on Saturday. 

Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said load shedding will then be suspended.

“Thereafter, load shedding will be suspended until 16:00 on Monday.  An update on the outlook of the next week will be announced on Sunday. Eskom will communicate should any significant changes occur.”

Battery storage

Meanwhile, Eskom has unveiled the first of its kind largest Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project not only in South Africa but also in the African continent.

The parastatal officially opened the Hex BESS site at Worcester in the Western Cape on Thursday.

Eskom said the Hex BESS is the first project to be completed under Eskom’s flagship BESS project announced in July 2022 to help alleviate the pressure on the national electricity grid.

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“The BESS project serves as a direct response to meet one of the urgent needs to address South Africa’s long-running electricity crisis by adding more storage capacity to strengthen the grid while diversifying the existing generation energy mix.

“It uses large scale utility batteries with a total capacity of 1 440MWh per day and a 60MW PV capacity. The Hex site is specifically designed to store 100MWh of energy, enough to power a town such as Mossel Bay or Howick for about five hours.

Completion

Upon completion of the first phase, Eskom will implement Phase 2 of the project which includes the installation of a further 144MW of storage capacity, equivalent to 616MWh at four Eskom distribution sites and one transmission site.

The solar PV capacity in this phase will be 58MW.

Eskom said the rollout of these technologies together with a disciplined execution of its Generation Recovery Plan which started in March, and aimed at achieving energy availability factor of 70% by end of March 2025, will give the country the most needed megawatts to address capacity constraints.

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