On Friday, the Cape Town loadshedding schedule will resume with reduced outages for City clients.
UPDATE: On Friday, 1 December 2023, Eskom made changes to the loadshedding schedule. See the updated changes below.
Cape Town loadshedding schedule for Friday, 1 December 2023
On Thursday, Eskom adjusted the loadshedding schedule to a pattern of Stage 3, Stage 4, and Stage 5 until further notice. This, the power utility, explained, was “due to further improvement in generation capacity and emergency reserves.”
Therefore, on Friday, Stage 3 loadshedding will be in place between 05:00 and 16:00, Stage 4 from 16:00 until 20:00, and Stage 5 from then until 05:00 the next day.
Barring any further updates from Megawatt Park, the City of Cape Town clients should be protected from heightened loadshedding between 05:00 and 22:00, on Friday.
Here’s a look at the Cape Town loadshedding schedule for Friday, 1 December 2023:
| Time | Cape Town | Eskom |
| 00:00 – 05:00 | Stage 4 | Stage 4 |
| 05:00 – 10:00 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 |
| 10:00 – 16:00 | Stage 1* | Stage 2* |
| 16:00 – 22:00 | Stage 1* | Stage 3* |
| 22:00 – 05:00 | Stage 3* | Stage 3* |
How to check your loadshedding schedule
In Cape Town, loadshedding is implemented rotationally in zones split between 23 areas.
Areas 1 – 16 follow the City of Cape Town’s loadshedding schedule, while Areas 17 – 23 adhere to Eskom’s national outage timetable.
To check the latest outage status, refer to the schedule for the loadshedding stage announced; dates indicated along the top (left to right), with the corresponding affected areas for that day and time slots (from top to bottom).
Here’s how City of Cape Town lowers loadshedding stages
The City of Cape Town has its Steenbras Pumped Storage Plant to thank for the delayed implementation of increased power cuts. The hydro-electric pumped power station is the first of its kind in Africa and in 2019, it was refurbished to provide auxiliary support when needed most.
Currently, the City of Cape Town is the only metro able to provide a semblance of relief to households impacted by loadshedding. Using the hydroelectric pumped power plant, residents connected to the City’s grid experience a lower stage of loadshedding, where possible.
Here’s how the Steenbras Pumped Storage plant works:
- Electricity generated during off-peak periods pumps water to an upper storage reservoir
- The down-flowing water is then used to power a generator
- Small hydro-generators like the one at Steenbras Dam mean that the City can sometimes avoid loadshedding or stay at a lower stage.