Sonia is unhappy about loadshedding

Look. No-one is happy about loadshedding. What’s to be happy about not having power for a few hours several times a week? It’s annoying, it’s disruptive, it’s frustrating.
But some people are more unhappy than others. Maybe that’s cos they just don’t get it. I think that maybe Sonia is one of those people.

Loadshedding, for those uninitiated in this relatively recently-founded South African pastime, is where there’s simply not enough electricity to go around and so the municipality cuts power from certain areas at certain times in order to conserve power and protect the grid. We’re given schedules to tell us when we’re likely to be cut off, but it’s not an exact science.

What follows is the comments thread (never read the comments thread) from a City of Cape Town post on Facebook, telling us about where was going to be switched off next and when.
I think they’re doing a pretty good job of keeping us informed. Sonia is less impressed:

lsimg

Incidentally, Sonia’s area (wherever that may be) probably doesn’t have a schedule on the City website because it’s not supplied electricity by the City. But that’s beside the point. Because it’s that second comment that makes me wonder what Sonia is thinking.

The electricity at my moms old age home was out from 10am till after 2pm! This is when the old people have to eat etc – that was very bad planning!

Damn straight, Sonia. You tell them. How could they leave your mom and her pals without any food over lunchtime? That is bad planning. The City should have a list of places where people want to eat lunch at lunchtime and they shouldn’t do loadshedding in those areas.

BUT THEN WHY STOP THERE WITH THEIR NEWFOUND GOOD PLANNING?

Next, they need to look carefully at when old people need to ‘etc’ as well, because as you state above, that’s obviously something that old people need electricity for as well. Lunchtimes aren’t just about eating, hey? More often than not, there’s ‘etc’ to get through too.

They should also have a separate list of places where people want to have lights when it goes dark and they should not loadshed those areas either. Another list might include areas where people want to have a cup of tea or coffee any given time during the day. These areas would have to be wholly exempt from loadshedding, because otherwise, how are these people going to beverage themselves adequately?

What about areas where people want to watch the rugby or other more exciting sport? I tried to watch some more exciting sport on Saturday afternoon with very limited success because there was no electricity due to loadshedding. This was very bad planning. Saturday afternoons are widely regarded as the best time for watching more exciting sport and yet they did loadshedding right while I was trying to do it.

How very dare they?

What about people who need to keep things cold in fridges, or do washing in a washing machine, or use computers, or traffic lights, or other things that use electricity?
There are hard lessons to be learned here. The City of Cape Town need to look carefully at their loadshedding schedules and, frankly, need to rearrange them more sensibly around people’s activities – especially those activities which require electricity.

Well said, Sonia.

Cape Town Loadshedding Schedules

CAPE TOWN’S NEW LOADSHEDDING SCHEDULES CAME INTO EFFECT FROM 1ST FEBRUARY 2015. CLICK HERE.

(For other cities/Eskom supplied areas – click here)

Loadshedding is back and once people realise this, the official City page will be inundated, will crash again and you, the information-hungry public, will be left in the dark, both literally and metaphorically.
Never fear: we’re here to help. Simply find your area’s number on this handy map – and then check out the images below to see when you can expect to be powerless.

To find out what stage loadshedding we’re on: check the red box on this page.

ls1

ls2

Hopefully, if we all do our bit, we can avoid the obvious nastiness of Stage 3, in which there’s almost as much darkness as light, although of course, it needs to be noted that if we didn’t have a mountain named after Lucifer overlooking our city, none of this would ever have happened.

EDIT: If you’re not on that map (like Table View), you’re supplied directly by Eskom, not the City and you need to go here to find your schedules.

Cape Town Load-Shedding Schedules 2014

*** THIS IS NOW UPDATED FOR 2015 – CLICK HERE ***

Load-shedding is back and it is already happening in Cape Town:

This is the first time the City has experienced Level 3 shedding, and according to Eskom, it’s likely that load-shedding – due to ongoing supply problems and exacerbated by the bad weather up north – will continue through into the weekend.

If you’re in Cape Town, here is the City page with the load-shedding schedules.

*NOTE that this is the schedule for Stage 2 load shedding. i.e. it will be this, PLUS SOME MORE. The City does not appear to have a Stage 3 schedule available at the moment.

Yes, I know it reads 2013, but it’s apparently still in force.

Meanwhile: if you are elsewhere and supplied (or not supplied, I suppose) directly by Eskom, you will need to visit THIS PAGE.

UPDATE: CAPE TOWN STAGE THREE LOAD SHEDDING SCHEDULES NOW AVAILABLE:

The City has given us this update, although at the time of posting, their website is down – no electricity or too much… er… load?

The City of Cape Town was informed this morning by the National Eskom Control Centre that they are initiating and have already started implementing Stage 3 load shedding. Stage 3 is the highest level of load shedding possible.

Click here for a list of the main stations, and for a list of suburbs and times that are scheduled for load shedding, click here. The City will keep residents and business informed of any updates.

If those links above aren’t working, I have saved those Main Stations and Suburbs and Times sheets on here too.