Power utility Eskom says extremely hot weather conditions experienced across the country have driven up electricity demand and this has put increased pressure on the grid.
The South African Weather Services says Gauteng and the Northern Cape will experience a heatwave from tomorrow, that will continue until this coming Tuesday.
Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena has advised South Africans to limit the use of pool pumps and other devices to avoid high stages of load shedding amidst the sweltering heat.
“Whether there is correlation between the high electricity demand and heat wave, the answer is yes. And this is particularly seen around 2 o ‘clock during the day. With the expected heatwave starting from tomorrow, Eskom has incorporated this into their plans, hence the stages of load shedding that we’ve just announced. We have pleaded with members of the public to please switch off their pool pumps or use them efficiently as well as their geysers so that we can alleviate pressure from the system and keep the load shedding stages as low as possible.”
Friday, 01 December 2023: Due to the sustained improvement of the generation capacity with unplanned outages at 13 542MW, loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 2 from 10:00 today until 16:00. Thereafter, Stage 3 loadshedding will be implemented from 16:00…
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) December 1, 2023
