More off than on: SA has experienced almost 300 days without electricity in 2023 so far
South Africa has experienced 287 days of load shedding so far in 2023.
According to the EskomSePush app, so far, we have had 6,894 hours of national load shedding.
The hours of load shedding (to date) are much higher than previous years.
In 2022, SA experienced 157 days, or 3,776 hours, of load shedding, while the lights were off for less than 50 days, or 1,153 hours, in 2021.
If you want a breakdown in minutes, SA has been without electricity for 407,746 minutes, with load shedding in action for 82% of the year.
Loadshedding 2023 wrapped! 💥 pic.twitter.com/It3HiuC6UA
— EskomSePush (ESP) (@EskomSePush) December 13, 2023
On Wednesday, Eskom announced that load shedding will resume from 4pm until 5am on Thursday.
“Thereafter, load shedding will be suspended from 5am until 4pm on Thursday. The pattern of suspending load shedding from 5am until 4pm and implementing Stage 2 load shedding from 4pm until 5am will be implemented daily until Sunday afternoon,” explained Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena.
She said unplanned outages are currently at 13,375 MW and planned maintenance is at 7,820 MW of generation capacity.
“A total of 2,000 MW will be returned to service by Friday. Eskom will communicate, should any significant changes occur at 5am,” she said.
While it’s no secret that load shedding has negatively impacted various sectors of the country, from small businesses to major corporations, South Africans are hoping that there is light at the end of this very long and very dark tunnel.
IOL