CURRENT ESKOM LOAD SHEDDING STATUS:

Welcome to theLoadDown.co.za. 

This website is dedicated to providing easy access to eskom load shedding schedules and news.

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What is load shedding?

Load shedding is an emergency measure implemented by Eskom when they are unable to provide enough electricity to satisfy the demand (i.e. the 'load') that South Africa has at that time.  Eskom explains that if this were to happen, there would be a real possibility that the entire system might collapse, leaving us all in the dark. To make things worse, once the system goes down, they would not be able to easily start it up again, which might leave the whole country without electricity for a few weeks!  To mitigate the risk, Eskom has to lessen the demand by preemptively cutting off the power for a portion of its customers. 

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What are load shedding stages?

Eskom has defined 8 (eight) cumulative stages of load shedding that could be instituted. Depending by how much the demand need to be reduced, Eskom would announce one of these stages to be instituted, which would in turn affect the frequency and/or duration of load shedding you would experience in your area:

Stage 1 allows for up to 1000 MW of the national load to be shed,
Stage 2 = 2000 MW, Stage 3 = 3000 MW, Stage 4 = 4000 MW.. up to 8 = 8000MW. Since Eskom produces roughly around 50 000 MW, it means that load shedding reduces the load between 2% (stage 1) and 16% (stage 8).  

 

How are load shedding schedules defined?

To make it fair, the entire country has been divided into a number of groups and each group gets a more-or-less equal turn to be deprived off electricity, according to a predefined schedule. 

 

The length and frequency of the turns each group takes depend how much load need to be shed. The specific schedules are decided by local electricity providers (mostly your municipality), but typical load shedding is scheduled for either 2-hour intervals nearly every day, or 4-hour intervals every other day, with the frequency increasing linearly for every stage.  Furthermore, note that  there are transitional periods at the end of each interval, which in effect means that your power could be turned off for 2 hours and 30 minutes, not just 2  hours.  As an example, see the City of Tshwane's official load shedding schedule.

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What is stage Stage 1 load shedding?

 Stage 1 load shedding occurs typically three times every 4 days for 2 hours at a time (e.g. Pretoria), or 3 times over 8 days for 4 hours at a time (e.g. Johannesburg). This would allow Eskom to shed up to 1000 MW of load.

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What is stage Stage 2 load shedding?

Stage 2 allows Eskom to shed up to 2000 MW of load, which would mean double the frequency of Stage 1.  The effect is that your power would be off 6 times over four days for 2 hours at a time, or 6 times over 8 days for 4 hours at a time.

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What is stage Stage 3 load shedding?

 Stage 3 means another 3000 MW need to be shed,  which means lights off 9 times every 4 days for 2 hours at a time, or 9 times every 8 days for 4 hours at a time.

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What is stage Stage 4 load shedding?

 Stage 4 means another 4000 MW need to be shed,  which means lights off 12 times every 4 days for 2 hours at a time, or 12 times every 8 days for 4 hours at a time.

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What happens at stage 5-8 load shedding?

Stages 5-8 have provisional schedules that escalate in a way similar to stages 1-4, but here Eskom warns that you could experience load shedding outside of the predefined schedule as they would announce such stage only in dire and unplanned circumstances.

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