Cape Town loadshedding schedule for Wednesday, 5 July 2023

The Cape Town loadshedding schedule for Wednesday, 5 July 2023, is expected to be lower than the national stage during the evening.

Cape Town loadshedding schedule for Wednesday, 5 July 2023

On Tuesday, Eskom adjusted the patterned loadshedding schedule from no outages during daytime peak periods, to Stage 1, and afterwards Stage 3 in the evenings, between 16:00 – 00:00.

This, the power utility said, was owed to several setbacks in restoring generation capacity at some power stations.

On Wednesday, 5 July 2023, Eskom will hope to keep loadshedding at a pattern of Stage 1 and Stage 3, barring no further unforeseen breakdowns.

In Cape Town, however, City clients will be well protected from heightened loadshedding throughout the day, as rotational blackouts will be reduced to Stage 1, while the rest of the country tussles with Stage 3 from 16:00 until midnight.

Barring no further updates from Megawatt Park, City of Cape Town clients will be on Stage 1 loadshedding between 16:00 and 00:00.

“We are doing all we can to protect you where possible, but non-stop load-shedding at high stages impacts our ability to protect,” the City wrote.

Here’s a look at the Cape Town loadshedding schedule for Wednesday, 5 July 2023:

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).

• City of Cape Town loadshedding schedule
• Eskom loadshedding schedule

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.