• Loadshedding will switch between Stage 1 and Stage 4 until Wednesday morning.
• Eskom said on Sunday it hopes to suspend loadshedding between 05:00 and 16:00 on Wednesday.
• The utility continues to urge South Africans to reduce their energy consumption between 17:00 and 21:00 daily.

After managing to stick to the schedule it announced for the weekend, Eskom laid out its plans for power cuts for the rest of the week on Sunday afternoon.

Since 05:00 on Monday morning, Eskom has been implementing Stage 1 power cuts with Stage 4 loadshedding set to kick in from 16:00 on Monday. Stage 4 will be in effect until 05:00 on Tuesday whereafter Stage 1 will be in place. This cycle of Stage 1 and 4 will continue until Wednesday morning when the utility plans to suspend loadshedding from 05:00 until 16:00.

“Breakdowns are currently at 15 050MW of generating capacity while the generating capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 4 434MW,” the utility reported on Sunday.

Eskom says that it has returned generating units to service at Camden and Duvha power stations but during the time those returned, a unit at Medupi Power Station was taken offline for repairs.

While a loadshedding suspension is good news, especially for those hoping to celebrate Women’s Day this Wednesday, we should caution that the loadshedding stage can change at any moment.

Eskom also encourages the public to reduce consumption by switching off geysers, pool pumps and other power hungry appliances around the home between 17:00 and 21:00 each day as this is when demand is at its highest.

Let’s see if Eskom can stick to its schedule this week.

[Image – Thomas M. Evans on Unsplash]