Load Shedding

‘Dankie, Siyabonga!’ Eskom keeps the lights on for another day

Eskom has “granted” the nation the luxury of another day of light and power by suspending load shedding until 4pm on Wednesday.

According to the power utility’s latest update, load shedding will return at Stage 1 in the evenings, with day-time suspension until Friday.

This pattern will repeat until further notice, Eskom said.

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The news was received with (unsurprisingly) mixed reactions of “We should not be having loadshedding at all” and “Dankie Siyabonga!” on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

Load shedding schedule

Tuesday, 24 October

  • Suspended: 12am to 12pm

Wednesday, 25 October

  • Suspended: 12am to 4pm
  • Stage 1: 4pm to 12am

Thursday, 26 October

  • Stage 1: 12am to 5am
  • Suspended: 5am to 4pm
  • Stage 1: 4pm to 12am

Sufficient emergency generation reserves

Eskom attributed its continued suspension of load shedding to the power utility’s sufficient emergency generation reserves and the anticipated evening peak demand remaining low.

ALSO READ: Eskom on track to end load shedding with another Kusile unit now online

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In his weekly media briefing on Monday, 23 October, Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa shared in his update on government’s implementation of its  Energy Action Plan (EAP) that Eskom’s power generation fleet was beginning to show “sustained improved performance over an extended period of time”.

Load shedding reprieve: Feeling elated like Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa at the ANC’s 2019 election manifesto review at the beginning of September? Photo: Twitter screengrab @MmusiMaimane

“This improved generation and lower-than-projected demand has allowed for an exponential increase in planned outages or ‘good maintenance’,” the minister said.

“The increased planned outage means that we are improving the overall performance capacity of the fleet, improving reliability and efficiency, and steadily ensuring we navigate to an equilibrium between demand and supply, buffered by a healthy reserve margin.”

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ALSO READ: ‘Not yet out of the woods, but SA beginning to bear fruits’ – Ramokgopa

A positive turn?

According to BusinessTech, plants are performing better than the same time in 2021 and 2022. This, coupled with an improvement in breakdowns, indicates that Eskom’s energy availability factor has seemingly taken a positive turn.

For the first time this year, the projections for the total hours of load shedding experienced by the country, have fallen under a cumulative 80 hours, currently standing at 79.6 days.

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This in comparison to the high of 101 days predicted at the end of May.

ALSO READ: Eskom’s progress: A fragile light in the load shedding tunnel

Load shedding schedules for SA metros

The schedules of major metros are available here:

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For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.

NOW READ: Brighter festive season: Load shedding improvements are ‘permanent’

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Published by
By Cornelia Le Roux
Read more on these topics: EskomLoad SheddingLoad shedding schedules