Stage 1 load shedding until Sunday afternoon

Rolling blackouts will continue at stage 1 until Sunday afternoon, power utility Eskom announced on Saturday afternoon.

Load shedding was stopped for eight hours overnight on Friday but returned at stage two from 8am. On Saturday afternoon Eskom announced another change to the schedule.

“After the suspension of load shedding from midnight on Friday until 08:00 today, the consistent improvement in generation performance and lower than anticipated electricity demand has enabled Eskom to reduce load shedding to Stage 1 from 12:20 today until 16:00 on Sunday,” spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said.

ALSO READ: Eskom is ‘addressing’ load shedding crisis, says Ramokgopa amid system failures

Mokwena said Eskom would continue to monitor the situation and communicate any changes ahead of an update on Sunday afternoon.

New Year, New breakdowns

After a quiet festive season that saw the longest stretch without planned power cuts since June 2022, Eskom has been ramping up load shedding to keep up maintenance and make up for the breakdown of generation units.

On Wednesday it announced stage 3 rolling blackouts would be implemented because four units had gone down, before easing to stage 2 on Friday.

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Speaking earlier this month, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said Eskom’s systems were still unstable and unreliable.

“We are addressing this through the planned maintenance. We’re getting through that recovery and we are experiencing a period of no load shedding again.

“We will have this period of days of no load shedding and then there will be days of load shedding,” he warned.

Companies at risk

The Allianz Risk Barometer report released this week detailed load shedding as one of the top concerns for global businesses.

3,069 risk management experts from 92 countries surveyed found infrastructure blackouts, cyber crimes and business interruptions as the country’s biggest risks.