- Eskom has published a confusing, number-filled loadshedding schedule for the Easter weekend.
- South Africans will receive breaks from loadshedding on Sunday and Monday if Eskom is able to keep to it.
- From Monday, the new week will be ushered in by Stage 3 blackouts.
On Monday, Eskom’s loadshedding schedule detailed that South Africans would be dealing with rotating Stage 3 and Stage 4 blackouts “until further notice.” Well, further notice has come in the form of another Eskom Power Alert 1 announcement.
At this point, Eskom’s Power Alerts are a normal part of the South African experience. Wake up, check out Twitter, get told that loadshedding is worsening.
At least Eskom’s latest alert offers a mixed bag for the Easter long weekend.
Published to Twitter on Wednesday, the announcement indicates that Eskom will be rotating between four different stages of loadshedding. Offering a confusing milieu of outage flavours.
So, the loadshedding schedule is thus:
- Stage 4 will last until Friday at 05:00 when Stage 1 will be implemented, this will last until 16:00 when Stage 2 will come into effect,
- Stage 2 will last until 05:00 on Saturday, where after Stage 1 will be implemented until 16:00 when Stage 3 will come into effect,
- Stage 3 will run until 05:00 on Sunday when loadshedding will be suspended until 16:00. Stage 3 returns then until 05:00 on Monday,
- Loadshedding will be suspended again from 05:00 to 16:00 on Monday owing to the fact that it is a public holiday. After 16:00 Stage 3 returns to take us into the rest of the week.
Eskom has done this a few times before, and we’re always thankful for the ability to play hopscotch with the schedule (we’re not).
The utility says it will make emergency announcements “if any significant changes occur,” but otherwise will keep to the above.
As of Wednesday, breakdowns across Eskom’s fleet removed 16 644MW of generating capacity. Units at Arnot, Lethabo, Kriel and Tutuka were taken offline for repairs from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Meanwhile, units at Kusile, Medupi and Tutuka have been delayed in returning to service after repairs.
Yesterday Eskom revealed that the total demand at 22:09 was 30 487MW, compared to an availability of 24 620MW. It was also running 13 diesel-guzzling open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) in order to stave off higher stages of loadshedding, as 5 024MW were already being shed.
Here’s hoping for an easy and electricity-filled Eastern weekend with no surprise breakdowns.
