The power utility, embattled and running out of contingency plans to avert us from a total blackout, has put together a rather interesting loadshedding schedule for the first work week of July 2022. Loadshedding schedule this week: What you need to know The chief catalyst behind this round of heightened blackouts is the ongoing wage…
The power utility, embattled and running out of contingency plans to avert us from a total blackout, has put together a rather interesting load shedding schedule for the first work week of July 2022.
Load shedding schedule this week: What you need to know. The chief catalyst behind this round of heightened blackouts is the ongoing wage strike led by trade unions, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).
At Fridays wage talks, the power utility, it’s believed, made a 7% counteroffer, and as things stand, the decision rests with more than 90% of Eskom workers who, over the past week, have refused to report for duty. In a statement released on Sunday, the state-owned electricity provider warned that “it will still take a few weeks for the power generation system to fully recover to pre-strike levels.” The outlook for the week ahead, Eskom continued, rests on several possibilities, “including the workforce fully returning to word to conduct much-needed repairs to equipment.”
“It is anticipated that load shedding will gradually be lowered to Stage 2 by the weekend. Eskom will communicate and implement any changes as may be necessary,” the power provider noted. This week, starting on Monday, 4 July 2022, rotational power outages are expected to shift between Stage 2, Stage 4, Stage 6 and Stage 5. On Sunday, Stage 2 load shedding was implemented from midnight until 05:00 on Monday. Thereafter, Eskom placed the country on Stage 4 load shedding and this is expected to run until 16:00. On Monday evening, Stage 6 load shedding will return until midnight, and Tuesday will follow a similar schedule, except, in the evening, Stage 5 load shedding will be implemented, until the wee hours of Wednesday, 6 July 2022. On Sunday, Eskom had 3 384MW on planned maintenance, while another 18 319MW of power was not feeding the grid due to unplanned breakdowns exacerbated by the wage strike.
