Cape Town - Residents and businesses that fall under the City of Cape Town and not Eskom will continue to be shielded from load shedding, courtesy of the local government.
On Tuesday morning, Eskom implemented Stage 2 load shedding from 9am until further notice.
Eskom Western Cape spokesperson Kyle Cookson made the announcement, citing the breakdown of a Duvha generating unit and the delay in returning to service another Duvha unit.
He said: “Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 9 this morning until further notice. Eskom will provide a further update as soon as any significant changes occur.”
In response to the news, the City of Cape Town said that its customers would not experience power outages until 4pm on Tuesday, November 8.
After that, Stage 1 load shedding would be implemented until 10pm, and after 10pm join the rest of the country on Stage 2 until 6am on Wednesday, November 9.
On Wednesday, City of Cape Town customers will again be shielded from load shedding from 6am until 4pm, and then move to Stage 1 load shedding until 10pm.
After 10pm, City customers will again be moved to Stage 2 load shedding.
The same schedule will be implemented on Thursday, November 10 for City customers.
On Friday the City’s Energy Department said would announce further changes subject to Eskom’s changes.
9 November
No load-shedding: 06:00 - 16:00
Stage 1: 16:00 - 22:00
Stage 2: 22:00 - 06:00
10 November
No load-shedding: 06:00 - 16:00
Stage 1: 16:00 - 22:00
Stage 2: 22:00 - 06:00
Updates to follow, subject to Eskom changes.
Last month, City of Cape Town mayoral committee member for energy Beverley van Reenen revealed that to date, Cape Town customers had been protected from more than 1 100 hours of Eskom’s 1 900-plus hours of load shedding from February to September 2022.
Van Reenen said where possible, the City was able to protect its customers from up to two stages of load shedding primarily through the management of the Steenbras Hydro Pump Station.
The 180-megawatt Steenbras Hydro Pump Station consists of four turbines that are used to generate electricity.
During peak electricity demand, it channels water from Upper Steenbras to Lower Steenbras, through the turbine generator, to create electricity.
Van Reenen revealed that at higher Eskom load-shedding stages, the City used gas turbines during the evening peaks from 5pm and 8pm, to bolster the capacity of the Steenbras-generated reserves.