Eskom drops Stage 6 load-shedding — here is the new timetable

Eskom has announced that it reduced load-shedding to Stage 3 at 10:00 on Thursday, 30 November 2023, which will persist until 16:00.

The power utility attributed the reduction of rotational power cuts to improved generation capacity and its replenishment of emergency reserves.

“Due to improved generation recovery and emergency reserves, Stage 3 load-shedding was implemented at 10:00 today until 16:00,” said Eskom

“Thereafter, Stage 4 load-shedding will be implemented from 16:00 until 20:00, followed by Stage 5 load-shedding from 20:00 until 05:00 on Friday.”

The power utility said it will communicate the further schedule later today.

South African residents have been experiencing higher load-shedding stages — up to Stage 6 — for nearly a week.

Eskom implemented Stage 6 on Friday, 24 November 2023, due to the loss of five generation units and the need to replenish emergency reserves.

It then reduced load-shedding on Sunday, 26 November 2023, with plans to rotate between Stage 3 during the day and Stage 4 overnight for the rest of the week.

However, it announced an increase to continuous Stage 4 load-shedding at 14:00 on Monday, 27 November.

However, this plan was short-lived, with the state-owned power utility announcing stage 6 night-time power cuts on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, it announced another hike in load-shedding, this time increasing daytime power cuts to stage 5.

The load-shedding schedule for Thursday, 30 November 2023, into Friday, 1 December, is summarised in the table below.