Eskom working on revising load shedding stages up to 16

Eskom said there is “work in progress” to revise the load shedding stages to stage 16.

The ailing parastatal painted a bleak and cold winter for South Africa during a media briefing on Thursday.

Acting Eskom CEO Calib Cassim warned that it is going to be a difficult winter with a possibility of the country hitting stage 8 load shedding during the cold season.

Winter outlook

Cassim said Eskom has 3 000MW less power this winter than it did last winter.

“If the interventions that we have planned for the winter do not achieve the desired outcomes and your unplanned outages reaches levels of 18 000MW, then the likelihood of stage 8 load shedding during peaks is extremely high.”

However, concerns were raised if the deliberate power cuts could go beyond stage 8 ahead of the cold winter season.

Eskom‘s chief transmission executive, Segomoco Scheppers said extending the load shedding stages was “work in progress”.

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Stage 16

“In terms of the approved standard, we currently stop at stage 8. There is work in progress in parallel to revise that standard to extend it to stage 16.

“We are not planning to go stage 16. What we are saying is in terms of preparedness, in the event there is a requirement to move to higher stages of load shedding, we believe it is important that there be proper schedules so that the public and customers can know what to expect in the event we get there.”

Stage 8

While South Africa could never experience a total blackout of electricity as per Cassim, stage 8 will have a sever impact on South Africans.

What does stage 8 load shedding actually entail?

Stage 8 allows for 8 000MW of electricity to be pulled off the grid, resulting in 12 hours of the day being spent in darkness, 48 hours over four days, or 96 hours in eight days.

However, this will vary from region to region.

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