There has been no load shedding for over a week now, but that does not necessarily mean that it will not return.
2024 has seen less load shedding than 2023, so far, but experts have warned that this brief reprieve does not mean the end of the country’s energy crisis.
Is load shedding over?
The 3rd of April 2024 officially marked more than a week with no load shedding being implemented at any stage across the country.
And given that South Africans spent close to 7,000 hours in the dark with no power in 2023, this small reprieve from the rolling blackouts has already started sparking a glimmer of hope that load shedding may be coming to an end for good.
2024 load shedding in a nutshell
2023 was certainly a low-point (or high-point, depending on how you look at it) for load shedding.
Energy analyst, Clyde Mallinson, estimated that 2023 had more than double the amount of load shedding hours than the previous year, and about nine times more than 2021.
Fortunately, the numbers are looking slightly better at the start of 2024, with only around 1,127 hours of national load shedding recorded by the end of February.
Why load shedding has been taking a break
Eskom’s most recent announcement that load shedding will remain suspended until further notice explained that this new status quo is thanks to “sustained available generation capacity, adequate emergency reserves and anticipated moderate demand.”
The power supplier also confirmed that a total 2,365MW of power generation capacity will be coming online by Friday, 5 April 2024.
However, while news of sustained generation capacity is always good – it is quite impossible to ignore the fact that load shedding conveniently seems to be winding down as we approach to the 2024 general election date, where a lack of service delivery and the continued energy crisis is sure to be a deciding factor in many people’s votes.
Is no load shedding too much to hope for?
South Africans heard that the “the worst” of load shedding is behind us at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2024 State of the Nation Address in February 2024.
And since the load shedding has been fairly light this year (relatively speaking), it seems so tempting to believe that things have taken a turn for the better.
However, these positive signs may just be a little too good to be true. Some experts estimate that regardless of what happens at the polls in May, the country’s energy crisis is unlikely to be solved within the next five years.
And, with winter approaching and Eskom’s Energy Availability Factor (EAF) still hovering around the 50% mark, it seems unlikely that this load shedding-less period will last very long.
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