Check out our Load-shedding Resilience Guide for some easy and affordable ideas to protect your home.

Know your load-shedding area number and schedule

Load-shedding 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 8 being the most serious. The City is divided into 23 areas and outages generally last for about 2,5 hours in each area.

For more information, visit the City’s official load-shedding page here.

Be prepared:

1. Keep your cellphone, laptop and / or tablet fully charged. If your battery is low, many cars now have USB ports which can charge your cellphone.
2. Keep a battery- or rechargeable light / torch or candles in an easy place that is accessible in the dark. Make sure you have an extra set of batteries or recharge the light when the power has returned.
3. Make use of surge protectors as electric surges are one of the biggest causes of damage to equipment during an outage. Connect essential appliances such as your television, computer and fridge.
4. Invest in a small gas cooker for essential cooking and to boil water. Make sure you have an extra gas bottle.
5. Consider an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) backup battery system which will allow you to plug in one or more appliances (similar to a generator).
6. Access, safety and security are always a priority. Make sure you know where the manual release lever of your electric garage door opener is located and how to operate it and always have a key handy if access is usually through an electric gate. Backup batteries for electrically operated gates, garage doors and security systems should be kept in a good working condition and be able to last through periods of load-shedding.
7. Make sure your vehicle has fuel in the tank and you have some cash on hand as most petrol stations and ATMs cannot operate without electricity.