Eskom load shedding

To Find Your Schedule On this Site

To find the schedule for your area on this web site (if you are an Eskom customer):

Type in your Suburb/town in the quick-search box or,
Choose your Province/Metropolitan Area/Suburb/town via the drop-down boxes.
If you cannot find your Suburb/Town, try to search for areas adjacent to your neighbourhood.

Please note:

Many electricity networks do not coincide exactly with geographical area boundaries. To overcome this, we have divided them into subsections eg A & B, East & West or North & South.

To find the schedule for your area on this web site (if you are a customer of a Municipality or a Metro):

Click on the link here
On the left menu options, click on your province name
You will be presented with a list of municipalities, click on your municipality
On the next screen, you will be presented with a list of suburb options, click on the one relevant to you and which will then take you to your schedules

If You Cannot Find Your Schedule On This Site:

If you are an Eskom customer and cannot find your schedule:

Please either log in to CS Online on the Eskom website www.eskom.co.za or,
Call the Eskom Contact Centre on 0860037566 / 08600ESKOM to verify your schedule. You can use your Eskom Account or Meter Number to find your schedule.
Download the MyEskom App which now provides the ability to search for an Eskom schedule using Eskom Account Number, Eskom Meter Number, Address or Geolocation, plus a number of other value added functions.

If you are not an Eskom customer and cannot find your schedule, please contact your Municipality or Metro.

The Municipality/Metro schedules are different to the Eskom schedules in design and detail.
Eskom has established principles for the design of its schedules in order to ensure as much equity and consistency as possible.
In many cases, Metros/Municipalities have agreed to work according to the same principles, but ultimately Eskom has no control over how the Municipalities/Metros determine their own schedules.

Understanding Eskom Load Shedding Stages

Load shedding will be used under emergency conditions for limited periods.

Eight schedules have been developed based on the level of risk and to ensure that load shedding is applied in a fair and equitable manner:

Stage 1 allows for up to 1000 MW of the national load to be shed.
Stage 2 allows for up to 2000 MW of the national load to be shed.
Stage 3 allows for up to 3000 MW of the national load to be shed.
Stage 4 allows for up to 4000 MW of the national load to be shed.
Stage 5 allows for up to 5000 MW of the national load to be shed.
Stage 6 allows for up to 6000 MW of the national load to be shed.
Stage 7 allows for up to 7000 MW of the national load to be shed.
Stage 8 allows for up to 8000 MW of the national load to be shed.

Load shedding in stages 1 to 4 will be implemented in most parts of the country in 2 hour blocks.

However, in Eskom-supplied Johannesburg areas, blocks are 4 hours long. This is to coincide with City Power’s 4 hour schedule.

Each of the time periods has an additional 30 minutes added to allow for switching of networks in a way that will not damage the power system.

Most customers in 2 hour blocks may therefore be without electricity for up to 2.5 hours at a time, while customers in 4 hour blocks may be without electricity for up to 4.5 hours at a time.

Eskom will begin load shedding customers at the start of the period (for example from 06:00), and will have all scheduled customers switched off within the first half hour (that is, by 06:30)

At the end of the two / four hour period, (that is, by 08:00 or 10:00 as applicable), Eskom will start returning power to customers and should have them all back within half an hour (that is, by 08:30 or 10:30).

Customers will expereince that the frequency of load shedding (ie the number of scheduled times per day) increases as higher Stages of load shedding are activated.

Also, customers in areas that experience 2 hour blocks in Stages 1 to 4, will find that the length of these blocks is doubled progressively to 4 hours as stages 5 to 8 are activated.

Stage 1 load shedding means that up to 1000MW of capacity needs to be shed. Consumers can expect to be shed up to 3 times over a four-day period for two hours at a time, or 3 times over an eight-day period for four hours at a time.
Stage 2 load shedding means that up to 2000MW of capacity needs to be shed. Consumers can expect to be shed up to 6 times over a four-day period for two hours at a time, or 6 times over an eight-day period for four hours at a time.
Stage 3 load shedding means that up to 3000MW of capacity needs to be shed. Consumers can expect to be shed up to 9 times over a four-day period for two hours at a time, or 9 times over an eight-day period for four hours at a time.
Stage 4 load shedding means that up to 4000MW of capacity needs to be shed. Consumers can expect to be shed up to 12 times over a four-day period for two hours at a time, or 12 times over an eight-day period for four hours at a time.
Stage 5 load shedding means that up to 5000MW of capacity needs to be shed. Consumers can expect to be shed up to 12 times over a four-day period: • 9 times for 2 hours • 3 times for 4 hours
Stage 6 load shedding means that up to 6000MW of capacity needs to be shed. Consumers can expect to be shed up to 12 times over a four-day period: • 6 times for 2 hours • 6 times for 4 hours
Stage 7 load shedding means that up to 7000MW of capacity needs to be shed. Consumers can expect to be shed up to 12 times over a four-day period: • 3 times for 2 hours • 9 times for 4 hours
Stage 8 load shedding means that up to 8000MW of capacity needs to be shed. Consumers can expect to be shed up to 12 times over a four-day period for four hours at a time.

If more load needs to be shed than has been scheduled in Stages 1 to 8, then National Control will instruct additional, unscheduled load shedding. This means you may be shed outside of your scheduled times.

The actual stage in use at the time will be displayed on the main Eskom website and on the home page of the Load Shedding Website, as well as on the MyEskom App.

Customers may also choose to use third party Apps which are available of the Apple and Android App Stores. These apps are developed and operated by third parties who have no affiliation with Eskom, however Eskom freely shares all of the load shedding data available on its web site and App with third party providers. Eskom cannot guarantee that these providers are using the latest data, nor that their aps are functional, but experience shows that they provide a useful alternative service.