• In its second change to the loadshedding schedule today, Eskom has suspended loadshedding until 16:00.
• After 16:00, Stage 2 loadshedding will be in effect until midnight when it will be suspended until 16:00 on Wednesday afternoon.
• Eskom says it will provide an additional update on Wednesday afternoon.

As South Africans wait out the start of their end-of-year leave over the festive season, loadshedding has likely been front of mind, given its persistent presence throughout the year.

Following a brief meeting with Stage 6 loadshedding, generation capacity at Eskom has seemingly improved. So much so that the utility has suspended loadshedding on Tuesday until 16:00. Before this however, Eskom announced that loadshedding would be reduced from Stage 3 to Stage 2 until 16:00 on Tuesday when Stage 3 would continue until 16:00 on Thursday.

That plan has been chucked out of the window now.

“Due to lower demand and further improvement in generation capacity, loadshedding will be suspended from 12:00 midday until 16:00. Thereafter, Stage 2 loadshedding will be implemented from 16:00 until midnight tonight when it will once again be suspended from midnight until 16:00 on Wednesday,” the utility wrote in a post X, formerly Twitter.

As the post above notes, a further update will be provided on Wednesday. Of course anything could change again, as we’ve seen today.

The good news is that loadshedding is currently suspended and that bodes well for the rest of the month. Given that many South African businesses tend to close shop by 15th December, demand should be lower.

Of course, the energy crisis we find ourselves in means that if enough generation capacity is lost, we will find ourselves plunged into higher levels of powercuts.

On Sunday Eskom was able to exceed demand with its availability without using gas-powered turbines.

Here’s hoping Eskom’s drop in loadshedding severity today doesn’t leave us in the dark for the rest of the month.

[Image – beauty_of_nature from Pixabay]