By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom says that load shedding will be reduced over the weekend, dropping to stage 2 by Sunday.
Load shedding will be maintained at stage 4 in the evenings between 16h00 and 05h00. It will then be lowered to stage 3 between 05h00 and 16h00 during the day before being reduced to stage 2 on Sunday morning.
A full statement will be published on Sunday, the group said.
Eskom’s expected weekend schedule is as follows:
Friday, 20 January
- Stage 4: until 00h00
Saturday, 21 January
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 3: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 4: 16h00 to 00h00
Sunday, 22 January
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 2: 05h00 until further notice
President Cyril Ramaphosa has been in meetings with stakeholders this week to try and find a solution to the ongoing energy crisis, which is wreaking havoc on the country and its economy.
South Africa’s National Energy Crisis Committee, a body run by Ramaphosa’s office, said earlier this week that a range of interventions has been made to mitigate the energy crisis – including new laws to speed up the approval and development of power plants – but no details or timelines have been delivered.
Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said that Eskom was in the process of finalising its plans to take further urgent steps to stabilise the power station’s performance and reliability but provided no details or timelines.
Eskom is facing a massive energy shortfall, with experts pointing to at least 10,000MW being needed to help stave off rolling blackouts.
The utility’s woes are compounded by a severe lack of funds to secure enough diesel to prop up its open-cycle gas turbines, which are needed to stabilise the grid and alleviate stress during peaks.
Load shedding has already caused major metros across the country to issue alerts, warning of extended outages, extensive damage to infrastructure and elevated levels of criminality as a result of the outages.
South Africans have been warned to expect worse to come as industries ramp up production following the December period, and as demand increases heading into the colder months near the middle of the year.
Meanwhile the United States Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) has reportedly started engaging with its stakeholders in South Africa over the deepening electricity crisis, considering what will happen if the power grid collapses.
The discussions in the meeting centred around what would happen to the country should a total blackout occur, and how long it would take to get systems back online.
The key takeaways were warnings of looting and civil unrest – with the aftermath looking like the result of a civil war – with Eskom facing difficulties getting the grid up and running again due to how spread out it is.
The caution from the US comes as South Africa is sitting on its 82nd consecutive day of load shedding. Rolling blackouts have hit the country every day of the year so far – and at higher stages than most businesses and residents are equipped to deal with.