Load shedding: Eskom warns to prepare for Stage 4 until Wednesday

Load shedding returned with a vengeance over the weekend, going from Stage 2 to Stage 4 in a matter of hours on Saturday.

Read: Here’s how to check your daily load shedding schedule

While questions have been asked over the excuses Eskom‘s dished out and some have been wondering what Stage 8 load shedding or, at worst, a total collapse of the grid, might look like, the power utility warned that South Africans should prepare themselves for more Stage 4 cuts this coming week.

Andrew Etzinger, Eskom spokesperson, was quoted by IOL as saying load shedding will be “unavoidable” in the coming days. He added that there is a risk that Stage 4 power cuts could remain in place until Wednesday.

Eskom appealed to residents and businesses to “use electricity sparingly” and turn off non-essential items like lighting, geysers and other power suckers.

But while we should all do what we can to be environmentally friendly, Eskom’s been given approval to partially hike up electricity tariffs. These hikes will hit consumers hard, but still leave the power utility short, which many experts have suggested could mean we’re in the load shedding boat for a long run.

That said, there have been some reports of certain suburbs being cut for reduced periods of time, despite Stage 4.

In the Cape Town suburb of Woodstock, many residents reported that although they were scheduled for an interruption from 12:00, the cut only lasted about five minutes. While nobody is complaining, it makes planning ahead a touch complicated.