Good news about load shedding for the new year

Eskom intends to keep load-shedding in place until at least Friday, January 5, 2024.

The power company said in a statement on Friday, December 29, 2023, that this was because of a steady increase in generating capacity.

Eskom stated, “Load-shedding will remain suspended until Friday at 16:00 next week.”

“Eskom will keep a careful eye on the power system and let you know if anything major changes.”

If all goes as planned, Eskom’s announcement means that South Africans won’t experience load shedding on New Year’s Eve or Day.

The power company will have stopped the rotating power outages for more than three weeks if it can manage to postpone load-shedding until Friday of next week.

EskomSePush data indicates that load-shedding has not been used since Thursday, December 14, 2023, early in the morning.

Since the utility usually experiences a significant drop in demand during the holiday season, it has been able to postpone power outages from before Christmas until companies begin to reopen for business in the new year.

But during the 2022–2023 holiday season, there was such a severe shortage of generating capacity that it was forced to repeatedly use load-shedding.

Even though Eskom was also able to postpone load-shedding for New Year’s Eve and Day last year, on January 2, 2023, the power outages had to return.