By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom will reduce the stages of load shedding over the weekend due to anticipated lower weekend electricity demand.
Stage 2 load shedding will continue until 20h00 on Friday as previously announced, moving up to stage 4 overnight.
This will be to replenish emergency reserves, the group said.
From 05h00 on Saturday, load shedding will be suspended, followed by stage 2 in the evening.
Following another daytime suspension on Sunday, stage 1 load shedding will continue until further notice, Eskom said.
Eskom said that the suspensions over the weekend are due to lower forecast demand, as well as an anticipated 1,500MW of generating capacity expected to be returned by Sunday.
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.
Eskom meanwhile reports in a statement that it has achieved a significant milestone in its key revision number, or KRN, rollover project, having successfully recoded three-million prepaid meters as of March 1.
The majority of the country’s prepaid meter token identifier codes are set to expire on November 24. After this date, all standard transfer specification- (STS-) compliant meters will no longer accept credit tokens.
“Reaching this milestone of recoding three-million key change tokens gives impetus to our commitment to ensure all our 6.8-million prepaid electricity meters are recoded before the deadline of November 24.”
We are grateful to our customers for embracing the do-it-yourself process. Our teams are available to promptly assist those customers who are experiencing challenges and have logged queries with reference numbers,” says Eskom Distribution group executive Monde Bala.
Eskom says it continues to centrally monitor the progress of the rollover, daily, through a dashboard, and that it provides support through various customer support mechanisms.
It avers that easy step-by-step guides are available on the various Eskom communication channels, including social media platforms, the Alfred Chatbot for questions and answers, and the Eskom website.
Eskom has also reiterated that the recoding of meters is done at no cost to the customers and has cautioned against scammers who may attempt to take advantage of the re-coding process and request any form of payment for this service.
Customers have also been reminded to enter all previously purchased credit tokens into their meter before entering their new meter recoding tokens.
This is important because old credit tokens will not work after the meter is recoded, Eskom emphasises.
If customers have bought multiple credit tokens as part of the meter recoding or afterwards, they must enter these tokens in the same date or time order they were bought.
Otherwise, older tokens may no longer work in the meter if newer tokens are inserted first, the entity points out.
It adds that the process of buying electricity remains unchanged.
Customers can still buy electricity from major banks, online platforms, fuel stations, prepaid electricity vending agents, and retailers across the country, as they currently do, Eskom explains.
Customers have also been urged to recode their meters, as all STS-compliant meters will stop accepting credit tokens after November 24.