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Johannesburg’s Power Outage Schedule Receives Another Update

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5 months ago

November 23, 2023

Johannesburg's Power Outage Schedule Receives Another Update

City Power Johannesburg has recently adjusted its load-shedding schedule in response to public dissatisfaction with the previous timetable. Taking over the load-shedding implementation from Eskom at the beginning of November, City Power initially promised residents in Johannesburg a maximum of two-hour blackouts, even during Stage 5. However, the implementation led to discontent among residents who experienced only a two-hour break between load-shedding intervals, as reported by IOL.

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Isaac Mangena, spokesperson for City Power, announced the revised schedule, assuring residents of extended periods of uninterrupted electricity supply ranging from six to 14 hours in worst-case scenarios between Stages 1 and 4. The updated schedule was released on Wednesday to address the concerns raised by the community.

Mangena clarified that upon assuming control from Eskom, City Power immediately eliminated the four consecutive hours of blackouts up to Stage 8. However, this adjustment resulted in a new issue where the same four hours were condensed into a 6–8-hour time frame, providing customers with only a two-hour break once a week.

To tackle this problem, Mangena outlined the changes in the revised schedule:

In Stage 1, four blocks will not experience load shedding per day, with no repetition of blocks in the same stage.
In Stage 2, eight blocks will undergo load shedding twice a day, while the other eight blocks will face load shedding three times in the same period.
In Stage 3, 12 blocks will be load shed twice, and the remaining four will experience load shedding three times.
In Stage 4, all blocks will be load shed three times, ensuring customers a minimum of six hours between blackouts.
Customers subjected to load shedding twice in a day will benefit from 14 hours of uninterrupted power supply.

Mangena acknowledged that the two-hour break issue might resurface during heightened levels of load shedding at Stages 5 to 8. He also mentioned that, on some occasions, up to four blocks might experience four hours of continuous load shedding due to overlapping into a different day. The City Power team is actively working to find solutions for the challenges associated with higher stages of load shedding.