Friday, January 30, 2015

Loadshedding Schedules for Cape Town and South Africa

Loadshedding schedules effective 1 February 2015
The schedules below are designed around the days of the month and reflect Eskom’s decision to implement loadshedding nationally on a regular basis and over weekends. They replace the previous schedules, which were designed around days of the week and were applicable for occasional loadshedding during peak demand times.
Loadshedding stages depend on the extent of the shortage of generation capacity to meet the country’s electricity demand, with stage 1 being the least serious, and stage 3b being the most serious.
Loadshedding outages generally last for about 2,5 hours, with one area being affected at a time during stage 1 and four areas being affected at a time during stage 3b.

Click Here for the Loadshedding in your area.

Eskom on Loadshedding - How do these schedules and stages work?

 
When Eskom declares a system emergency, the system is in a critical state and, unless enough load is reduced voluntarily, loadshedding will start. Eskom determines the Stage at which loadshedding needs to be applied depending on the generation capacity shortfall in the country at that particular time.
The schedules are a predetermined set of schedules (including a 30 minute overlap time to allow for switching) that gives the time when we will cut off each area if loadshedding is necessary. When we need load shedding, we try to stick to these schedules, so that customers know what to expect if shedding starts.
There are three loadshedding stages, depending on how big a problem (i.e. the extent of the shortfall in generation capacity in the country) there is on the national power system: Stage 1: Generation shortfall of up to 1 000 MW
Stage 2: Generation shortfall of up to 2 000 MW
Stage 3: Generation shortfall of up to 4 000 MW

We refine these schedules from time to time, so please always look at the latest schedules on this website page.


4. What is the difference between loadshedding and saving electricity?
Loadshedding is aimed at removing load from the power system when there is an imbalance between the electricity generation capacity available and the demand for electricity. If we did not shed load, then the whole national power system would switch off and no one would have electricity. Loadshedding is therefore done to protect the national power system from collapsing.  
Saving electricity (by using energy-efficient appliances, switching off equipment when not in use, using alternative sources of energy such as solar geysers) has benefits such as reduced cost, less pollution, the better use of natural resources (coal, water and fuel) and less wear and tear on the power stations, transmission and distribution systems – and it saves customers money. In these times of capacity constraints, saving electricity also means that the load on the national power system is reduced. This helps to stabilise the balance between the available generation and the demand, in this way reducing the risk of loadshedding.

Do you understand Loadshedding - Loadshedding explained



1. What is load shedding?
Loadshedding is a measure of last resort to prevent the collapse of the power system country-wide. When there is insufficient power station capacity to supply the demand (load) from all the customers, the electricity system becomes unbalanced, which can cause it to trip out country-wide (a blackout), and which could take days to restore. When power is insufficient, Eskom can thus either increase supply or reduce demand to bring the system back into balance. As the difference between supply and demand becomes small, we refer to the system becoming “tight”. This implies that action has to be taken to prevent the system from becoming unstable.
Eskom normally takes a sequence of steps to keep the system stable and to avoid load shedding. The steps include first asking large customers to reduce load voluntarily. However, if several power station units trip suddenly and unexpectedly, we may have to skip those steps and go straight to loadshedding to prevent the system from becoming unstable.
Scheduled loadshedding is controlled by way of sharing the available electricity among all its customers.
By switching off parts of the network in a planned and controlled manner, the system remains stable throughout the day, and the impact is spread over a wider base of customers. Loadshedding schedules are drawn up in advance to describe the plan for switching off parts of the network in sequence during the days that loadshedding is necessary.
On days when loadshedding is required, the networks are switched off according to the predetermined plan, to ensure that, as far as possible, customers experience loadshedding in accordance with the published loadshedding schedules.
In exceptional circumstances, if scheduled loadshedding is not achieving the required load reduction and/or unexpected emergencies or failures occur, then System Control Centres will shed load outside the published schedules by using emergency switching in order to protect the network.
Such events are rare, but if a state of emergency loadshedding is declared, then all customers can expect to be affected at any time, and the planned schedules may not necessarily apply.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Wine Tour Chauffeured Sidecar - Only Cape Town

Discover the beauty of the Cape Winelands in a unique fashion - on a vintage World War II Sidecar! This tour will give you the opportunity to visit some of the most famous vineyards outside of Cape Town, including the towns of Paarl, Franschoek, and Stellenbosch. Motorbikes can carry up to two passengers, and are driven by a qualified guide, who will ensure you have vintage day out.
See the best of the Cape winelands with you experienced chauffeur, will guide on a full day trip to some of the best know wine farms in the Cape. You will have the opportunity to enjoy some wine tastings, purchase wine and enjoy lunch (own expense) in the heart of the largest wine growing area of South Africa.

Start your tour out of Cape Town after breakfast and take a leisurely drive to the historical wine town of Paarl, once the headquarters of the wine industry of South Africa. Here, you will visit an estate to enjoy some wine and cheese tasting. The town boasts many magnificent examples of Dutch architecture, scenic drives, hiking trails and of course, the Paarl Wine Route.

Next you will head to Franschoek, founded in 1688 by French Huguenot immigrants. Known as the gourmet capital of South Africa, and features some of the worlds best restaurants.What better place to stop for lunch (own expense) before visiting a local vineyard for another wine tasting.

Then, it is on to Stellenbosch, the second oldest European Settlement in South Africa after Cape Town. Here you will have the opportunity to walk through the oak lined streets and experience the Mediterranean-style climate which makes this region ideal for wine growing. And of course, you will enjoy your final wine tasting of the day.

Enjoy a comfortable ride back to Cape Town in the late afternoon sunshine.