Loads of loadshedding coming

“We are likely to load shed on most days in the near future”

Yep. Here’s a slide from the Eskom briefing this morning. That legend up at the top reads as follows:

Green days: Adequate generation capacity available to meet demands and reserves.
Yellow days: Constrained generation capacity with sufficient supply to meet demands and reserves. Moderate probability of loadshedding.
Red days: Insufficient generation capacity unable to meet demands and reserves. High probability of loadshedding.

eskom

A rudimentary count from next Monday gives us 102 days of which 11 are green, 20 are yellow and 71 are red. That means that until the end of April, SA will have a high probability of loadshedding 70% of the time. Even more worrying for the economy is that there are only three working days which are not red, and none of those three are green.

This is summer, when demand is lower, meaning that in some ways, we’re getting off lightly. But there’s no indication that come May, some magic bullet will have solved everything. No quick fixes here.
So yes, we’re screwed whichever way you look at it. But I think the time for recriminations is done now (I actually think that the time for recriminations was done a long time ago). Spilt milk. This has happened, it’s how it’s dealt with now that matters.
And that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to help out. Switch off what you’re not using, use high-wattage equipment less and try to make some sort of difference.
Do your bit in trying to turn a red into a yellow or a yellow into a green.
It really can’t do any harm.

Just a reminder that you can view the Cape Town schedules here. These are due to change on the 1st February, and we’ll keep you updated when that happens.

8 thoughts on “Loads of loadshedding coming

  1. I’m not sure why CoCT isn’t sharing their load shedding schedule until they are implemented on the first. Surely it would be useful to everyone to have them straight away?

  2. So to add to the excitment!
    @CityofCT has told me that the schedule will be available in newspapers (WHAT?!) in the last week of January and then online from the 1st.
    I LITERALLY don’t understand..

  3. The reason the new schedule is not published prior to implementation is that the average customer would get confused, and not know which schedule is being used, and will blame the City for deliberately confusing them and not sticking to the schedule.

    It’s put in the press in an attempt to get it to as many people as possible. Most people get a community paper of some sort. Unfortunately, printing takes a bit of time, and not a bit of money, so the last week of the month is realistically all that could be done.

    It’s a case of damned if they do, damned if they don’t. So they don’t. Because that’s the lesser of the two evils.

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