Eskom Implements Stage 1 Load Shedding

Eskom, an energy company in South Africa, announced that stage 1 load shedding will be implemented from Sunday 4:00 p.m. onwards till Monday 5:00 a.m.

The announcement came after the power utility suspended load shedding on Saturday from 5:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., followed by Stage 2 on Sunday until 5:00 a.m.

"Thereafter, load shedding will be suspended again from 05:00 on Monday until 16:00, followed by Stage 2 load shedding until 05:00 on Tuesday," as per the statement shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday.

It added, "The suspension of loadshedding from 05:00 until 16:00 and the implementation of Stage 2 loadshedding from 16:00 until 05:00 the next day will be repeated daily from Monday until further notice."

Eskom noted that this schedule is a "result of the recovery of emergency reserves, the return of three generating units and the anticipated weekday demand," adding that a total of 3,330 megawatts of generation capacity is expected to return to service by Wednesday.

The energy utility forecasted peak demand in the evening of 24,883 megawatts, noting that Eskom will share further updates if there are any significant changes.

Ahead of this announcement, Eskom issued a statement revealing that the majority of the country's prepaid meter Token Identifier (TID) codes are set to expire on Nov. 24.

Eskom's Group Executive for Distribution Monde Bala said, "Reaching this milestone of recoding 3 million Key Change Tokens gives impetus to our commitment to ensure that all our 6.8 million prepaid electricity meters are recoded before the deadline of 24 November 2024," as per official statement shared last week.

He added, "We are grateful to our customers for embracing the Do It Yourself (DIY) process. Our teams are available to promptly assist those customers who are experiencing challenges and have logged queries with reference numbers."

South Africans are experiencing reduced stages of load shedding from the last couple of months as they are getting closer to the general election date.

The elections will be held on May 29 across the country. However, special voters can vote on May 27 and 28, as per the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).