- Eskom implemented the Stage 6 load shedding late on Wednesday morning, citing “a large number of breakdowns since midnight.”
- It had been moved to Stage 4 earlier in the day.
- This is what the different stages of load shedding mean.
- For more stories, visit www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
Eskom implemented the Stage 6 load shedding, immediately and until further notice, late Wednesday morning.
Stage 6 is necessary “due to a large number of outages since midnight, as well as the requirement to strictly preserve the remaining emergency generation reserves,” it said.
Earlier in the day, it moved into Stage 4 load shedding with a three-hour notice, due to “further breakdowns and delays in returning generating units to service.”
If Stage 6 is maintained for a 24-hour period, most people will be without power for 6 hours a day.
Eskom first implemented Stage 6 in December 2019, a level of electricity rationing that, until then, had been strictly theoretical.
See also | Six ways to deal with Stage 6 load shed, including getting food orders in early
At the time, Eskom provided a 20-minute notice for the switch between Stage and Stage 6.
Operational plans have been made for load shedding up to Stage 8, as a contingency measure in case it is necessary to avoid a national blackout when the demand exceeds the supply, disconnecting the network completely.
This is what the different stages of load shedding mean.
At each stage of load shedding, Eskom rations the country with an additional 1,000 MW of power, the equivalent of 1,000,000 kilowatts (a microwave or kettle uses about 1 kilowatt, so one way to think about the stages is that on each climb, Eskom changes a million kettles.)
A Level 1South Africa as a whole is forced to save 1,000 MW, or one million kettles, which, depending on local government elections, means short cuts for individual electricity users or blackouts only in small parts of cities.
A Stage 2 the national grid is missing 2,000 MW, or two million kettles, in stage 3 the rationing reaches 3,000 MW, and so on.
How suburbs and cities are affected by each stage depends on a variety of factors, including the time of day the electrical emergency is declared. The exact social and economic impact is difficult to estimate, and assumptions vary widely.
However, for Stage 4 the shortage is equivalent to almost the total installed generating capacity of the gigantic Medupi power plant.
A stage 5 Eskom is unable to supply as much electricity as South Africa has committed to purchase from the giant Inga 3 hydro project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after doubling its initial consumption intention, and at Stage 6 the rationing is the equivalent of all the energy Ethiopia hopes to generate by tapping into the Blue Nile.
stage 7 It spews out as much electricity as all of South Africa’s 47 initial independent renewable energy producers.
A Stage 8According to Eskom estimates, the average South African will have electricity for 50% of the time, with connections disconnected for 12 hours out of 24.
* This article was first published in June 2022, in the context of the impending Stage 6 rationing. It was updated in December to reflect the new context at the time.
