It’s lights out in Brackenfell but the City of Cape Town is working on the problem. Photo: Adobe Stock
Bad news: Cape Town not spared from Stage 6 load shedding
The extent of load shedding is typically less severe in Cape Town than in other parts of the country, but not time, unfortunately
It’s lights out in Brackenfell but the City of Cape Town is working on the problem. Photo: Adobe Stock
Cape Town residents have no choice but to put up with stage 6 load shedding, as the city says it is currently unable to intervene, as was the case previously. Eskom announced in the wee hours of Sunday, 18 September 2022, that it had escalated load shedding to stage 6, due to several breakdowns at some of its power stations.
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CAPE TOWN BRACES FOR STAGE 6 LOAD SHEDDING
The extent of load shedding is typically less severe in Cape Town than in other parts of the country as the city is able to protect its customers up to two stages where it is possible, primarily through the use of the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme. For example, when Eskom enforced stage 5 load shedding on Saturday, 17 September 2022, Cape Town was able to remain on stage 3 at least until later that evening at 22:00.
The current situation now means residents of the mother city are now in the same boat as everyone else.
“Eskom and City customers on Stage 6 due to worsened Eskom situation. Unfortunately, no City protection is currently possible due to required statutory inspection of Steenbras plant and non-stop load-shedding at high stages,” the city said on Twitter.
The city has previously explained the situation, saying in part: “At night, if there is no load shedding, we typically pump to replenish power reserves to assist customers the next day. It’s a tough choice about when in the day we apply reserves (day or night) to limit the impact of load shedding on customers and livelihoods. It’s simply impossible to pump to replenish power reserves and to load shed at the same time, which sometimes limits the contingency measures,”
