General Comment



Question 1.     Why aren’t we given advanced notice for Load-shedding?

Question 2.    Why am I affected when I know of other areas which have not experienced load shedding?

Question 3.    Why am I scheduled to be switched off only in the evening or morning hours?
Our approximately 730 000 customers have very diverse needs and whilst we have endeavoured to keep the schedule as simple as possible for better understanding, we needed to balance them against a host of other criteria. 

Without getting into the technical detail, the result is that we could not avoid some customers getting scheduled for predominantly morning hours whilst others were scheduled for predominantly evening hours.

Load-shedding is ONLY implemented under an extreme emergency and sustained load-shedding over sequential days is unlikely, hence customers that are switched off will only experience a single or at the worst case a few incidences of load-shedding a year.

Question 4.    Why am I scheduled to be switched off at the same time every alternative day?
The largest number of complaints from customers during the initial load-shedding of 2008 was that they did not know when they were scheduled to be switched off. It was therefore deemed practical to only have 2 different switch-off times per Block on alternative days for Stages 1 & 2. This made it easier for customers to remember or even write down.

Question 5.    How do I know which Block I am in?
The attached Schedule is a guideline to determine which Block a customer is in and should be accurate under normal operating conditions. However, each customer can be fed from multiple substations, some of which could be in different Blocks. Under fault or high load conditions, customers can be fed from alternative neighbouring substations, some of which may be in other Blocks. It is extremely difficult to report on this dynamic change in network configuration in real time and we appeal to customers to be patient if this situation does occur.

It is recommended that if load shedding occurs for a prolonged period, a customer should use their first outage experience to identify the applicable Block. However, this cannot be guaranteed for the reasons explained above.

Question 6.    What does Stage1, Stage2 and Stage 3 mean?
Eskom has developed a hierarchy of emergency conditions each requiring a specific load reduction stipulated below. Depending on the severity of the supply constraint, Eskom would declare a Stage 1, 2 or 3 Emergency to prevent a national blackout.

Stage 1 –National shortage of 1000MW
Stage 2 – National shortage of 2000 MW
Stage 3 – National shortage of 4000 MW

Please note that eThekwini Stage 1 emergency will affect largely residential & commercial loads whilst Stage 2 will include industrial loads. A Stage 3 emergency will entail all customers with the exception of certain critical resources.

Question 7.    Will load shedding occur every day?

Load shedding is required when the national demand is predicted to exceed the generation capacity connected to the national grid and this can happen at any time depending on the situation causing the incapacity of Eskom to meet the required demand. Whilst, we are most susceptible during the peak times, it is also possible to go into load-shedding during off-peak hours as was the case in May 2008 and on 2 November 2014. These incidences were caused by the interrupted supply of coal to the generation plant and unless Eskom experiences another similar unlikely event we should be able to avoid sustained load-shedding.

Question 8.    Why not load shed at night?


Question 9.    Will eThekwini Municipality compensate me for losses?

Question 10.    Why does the schedule provide for 2½ hours for each block?

Question 11.    Will I always be in the same block?
Distribution substations are supplied from major substations by multiple circuits and it is possible that the source of supply could be changed for reasons outside of load shedding. While this does not happen often (and usually returned to the normal state after a period), it is possible that this would result in the customer being associated with a different block.

Question 12.    Will you stick to the schedule?
Every effort will be made to follow the schedule, however it must be recognised that abnormal network conditions and unexpected faults cannot b be predicted.

On the other hand, it may not be necessary to switch off all areas in the scheduled block to achieve Eskom’s load requirement at the given time. Areas will only be turned off according to the schedule if Eskom requires the reduction of load.

Question 13.    How long can my freezer stay off before the quality of the food deteriorates?

Question 14.    Should I switch off appliances during load shedding?