Eskom drops load-shedding stage for Saturday night
Eskom has announced it will implement stage 1 load-shedding on Saturday from 16:00 until 05:00 on Sunday, instead of stage 2.
The utility’s original plan to rotate between stage 1 and stage 2 for the rest of the weekend and the first two days of the coming week, with two 11-hour suspensions of the power cuts on Sunday and Tuesday, remains as is.
It did not provide any explanation for the change in plan on Saturday night.
Eskom’s most recent evening peak statistics — for Friday, 17 March 2023 — showed it had total demand of 27,432MW at peak.
At the same time, it had 28,530MW of generation capacity available, an excess of 1,098MW.
However, because the utility was load-shedding around 1,834MW of electricity, it only sent out 25,598MW at peak.
It did not have to run any of its own or IPP open-cycle gas turbines.
The table below shows Eskom’s planned load-shedding implementation for the coming days.
| Eskom load-shedding timetable from 18 March 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Day | Start Time | End Time | Stage |
| 18 March 2023 | Saturday | 16:00 | 24:00 | 1 |
| 19 March 2023 | Sunday | 00:00 | 05:00 | 1 |
| 05:00 | 16:00 | — | ||
| 16:00 | 24:00 | 1 | ||
| 20 March 2023 | Monday | 00:00 | 05:00 | 1 |
| 05:00 | 16:00 | 1 | ||
| 16:00 | 24:00 | 2 | ||
| 21 March 2023 | Tuesday | 00:00 | 05:00 | 2 |
| 05:00 | 16:00 | — | ||
| 16:00 | 24:00 | 2 | ||
Update — Load-shedding schedule to be determined
Eskom sent another update which suggested it had recalled its planned load-shedding schedule from 16:00 onwards on Sunday, 19 March 2023.
“Stage 1 load-shedding will continue until 05:00 on Sunday,” Eskom said. “Thereafter, load-shedding will be suspended from 05:00 until 16:00.”
Eskom said it would provide a further update on the planned load-shedding schedule on Sunday afternoon or as soon as any significant changes occurred.
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