- City Power took over loadshedding responsiblities from Eskom this month.
- While four-hour power cuts were removed from the schedule, residents are now experiencing two two-hour blocks sandwiching a two-hour break in power cuts.
- This trend will continue until City Power finds a resolution.
On 6th November, City Power took control of loadshedding from Eskom. While there are exceptions, most of Johannesburg’s wards would no longer have to deal with four-hour blocks of loadshedding.
While this sounded like good news, once the schedules were released earlier this month, residents discovered that they would experience loadshedding more frequently with some residents having two-hour gaps between two-hour long power cuts. With loadshedding flitting between Stages 2 and 3 this week, the failings of City Power’s new schedules came to the fore.
Some residents have this week found themselves being loadshed for four hours in an eight hour period. The trouble is that these four hours are only separated by a two hour gap, depending on when the power comes on.
“We aknowledge and recognise some of the challenges with regards to some blocks that are shed frequently in a short space of time, with some loadshed twice in a space of eight hours. This phenomenon will occur in all 16 blocks in the coming weeks until a permanent solution is found,” City Power told residents on X, formerly Twitter.
Per another release sent to Hypertext, the blocks that will experience these poorly planned outages this week are tabled below.
| Date | Block | Time |
| 14th November | 9 | 16:00 – 18:30 and 20:00 – 22:30 |
| 10 | 18:00 – 20:30 and 22:00 – 00:30 | |
| 15th November | 3 | 16:00 – 18:30 and 20:00 – 22:30 |
| 4 | 18:00 – 20:30 and 22:00 – 00:30 | |
| 16th November | 2 | 16:00 – 18:30 and 20:00 – 22:30 |
| 3 | 18:00 – 20:30 and 22:00 – 00:30 | |
| 17th November | 7 | 16:00 – 18:30 and 20:00 – 22:30 |
| 8 | 18:00 – 20:30 and 22:00 – 00:30 | |
| 18th November | 1 | 16:00 – 18:30 and 20:00 – 22:30 |
| 2 | 18:00 – 20:30 and 22:00 – 00:30 | |
| 19th November | 14 | 16:00 – 18:30 and 20:00 – 22:30 |
| 15 | 18:00 – 20:30 and 22:00 – 00:30 |
Residents in Blocks 3 and 2 – and 14 looking at Monday’s schedule – appear to be getting the short end of the stick here and given that there is no exact date this will end, next week could spell the same for other blocks.
Thankfully, it appears as if City Power has sought to lessen the impact these cuts have on business owners as they appear to take place largely after hours. This isn’t good news for residents but at least businesses won’t have to scramble to beef up their backup power solutions to deal with two-hour breaks sandwiched between two two-hour blocks of loadshedding.
We highly recommend our readers follow City Power on X, formerly Twitter for regular updates and that you download EskomSePush to more easily understand the loadshedding schedules.
