Ailing power utility Eskom has announced rolling blackouts until Saturday (30 October), which means it is time to check your stage 2 load shedding schedule once again.
In a statement on Tuesday (26 October), Eskom cited a “shortage of generation capacity” as the reason.
Capacity constraints
“While Eskom teams have successfully returned a unit each at the Kusile, Matimba and Arnot power stations during the early hours of this morning, further delays in returning other units to service have exacerbated the capacity constraints, hampering the ability to replenish the emergency generation reserves,” the state-owned utility said.
“Eskom anticipates to return Koeberg Unit 1 to service during the weekend. Eskom also expects to return five other units to service during the week. However, there are number of generation units running with risk of failure that cannot be attended to at the moment due to the current capacity constraints.”
There have been numerous breakdowns at various power stations across the country in recent weeks. As of Tuesday, total breakdowns amounted to 13,333MW while planned maintenance was 5,548MW of capacity.
Eskom has already been implementing load shedding in recent days, albeit late at night from 21h00 until 05h00. On Monday, it brought the starting time forward to 18h00 after further breakdowns.
“Eskom would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the implementation of load shedding, and requests the public to reduce the usage of electricity in order to help us through the constraints. Eskom will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the power system,” it said.
In a media briefing on South Africa’s power system on Monday, the utility said the spectre of load shedding is likely to remain until August 2022.
Eskom load shedding schedule
South Africans living in metros can check their Eskom stage 2 load shedding schedule by visiting their metro websites below:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town (PDF)
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
Eskom has also made the schedules available on its website, which can be found at loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Load shedding app EskomSePush provides notifications as well as timings to smartphone users. It is available for download on Android as well as iOS.
Eskom also has its own app – MyEskom – which can be downloaded on both Android and iOS platforms. Alternatively, you may call Eskom at 086 003 7566.