Is There Load Shedding in Cape Town Today?
No — it's suspended
468 days without load shedding — 1 year, 3 months and 13 days, since 20 May 2025.
Eskom reported 441 consecutive days without load shedding as of 4 August 2026 — the count on this page runs from the same start date and advances by itself. Between 1 April and 30 July 2026 electricity demand was met 100% of the time, and the Winter Outlook to 31 August 2026 projects no load shedding. The utility recorded a daily energy availability factor of 82.04% on 26 July 2026, its best single day since 2017.
Eskom · status of 4 August 2026 · source. The day count is calculated from the date of the last load shedding each time this page loads.
The calm is the story
There is no load shedding in Cape Town today, and there has not been any anywhere in South Africa since May 2025. That is the longest uninterrupted run since load shedding became a routine part of South African life.
It is worth saying plainly, because pages like this one are usually built for bad news and tend to manufacture drama when there is none. Between 1 April and 30 July 2026, Eskom met national electricity demand 100% of the time. Its winter outlook through the end of August projects no load shedding. On 26 July 2026 the fleet's daily energy availability factor reached 82.04%, the best single day since 2017.
Four years ago that would have read as fantasy. In 2023 the country lost power on roughly nine days in ten.
One distinction matters, because the two get conflated. Load shedding is national: Eskom sheds demand when generation cannot meet it. Load reduction is local: it is applied in specific areas where the local network is overloaded, often by illegal connections, and it continues in parts of the country even while load shedding is suspended. Six provinces are now free of scheduled load reduction, and Eskom has said it aims to eliminate it nationally by 2027.
How bad it used to be
- 2023335 days
The worst year on record. Load shedding ran on roughly nine days in ten. triangulated
- 202483 days
Concentrated almost entirely in the first quarter; the rest of the year was clear. triangulated
- 202512 days
Twelve days, all before winter. The last load shedding ran on 15–16 May 2025, and Eskom's current unbroken run is counted from 20 May 2025. triangulated
- 2026none
Zero days to date. Demand met 100% of the time from April through July. verified
Days on which load shedding occurred at any stage. 2023 was the worst year on record. Eskom does not publish a single authoritative annual total, so these are drawn from published analyses of its data and badged triangulated rather than verified.
What each stage means
| Stage | Demand shed | Typical outages | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 000 MW | Up to 3 outages over 4 days | The lightest stage. Most areas see two-hour blocks, spread thinly enough that many people barely notice. |
| 2 | 2 000 MW | Up to 6 outages over 4 days | Twice Stage 1's burden. Fridges and routers start to matter; work-from-home gets awkward. |
| 3 | 3 000 MW | Up to 9 outages over 4 days | The point at which households start planning meals and commutes around the schedule. |
| 4 | 4 000 MW | Up to 12 outages over 4 days | Roughly four hours without power a day. Traffic lights, water pumping and mobile towers all feel it. |
| 5 | 5 000 MW | Up to 15 outages over 4 days | Sustained daily disruption. Small businesses without backup lose trading hours every day. |
| 6 | 6 000 MW | Up to 18 outages over 4 days | The stage South Africa reached repeatedly in 2022 and 2023. Around six hours off a day. |
| 7 | 7 000 MW | Up to 21 outages over 4 days | Beyond anything implemented nationally. Added to the schedule as headroom, not as a plan. |
| 8 | 8 000 MW | Up to 24 outages over 4 days | The top of the published schedule — about twelve hours without power a day. Never implemented. |
Each stage sheds roughly another 1,000 MW of national demand. Your actual schedule — which blocks, which hours — is set by your municipality, so what a stage means for your street depends on your City of Cape Town or Eskom schedule.
Why Cape Town sometimes ran a stage lower
For years Capetonians noticed something their friends in Johannesburg did not get: when the country went to Stage 4, parts of Cape Town went to Stage 3.
The reason sits in a dam. The City owns and runs the Steenbras pumped-storage scheme, the only large one operated by a South African municipality — four turbines producing up to 180 megawatts by releasing water from the Upper Steenbras dam into the Lower, then pumping it back overnight when demand and prices fall.
Run during peak demand, that 180 megawatts substitutes for a slice of what Eskom would otherwise have to shed in the City's supply area, which has historically allowed Cape Town to absorb roughly one stage of national load shedding, and at times more. The City has committed continued investment — on the order of R1.2 billion over the coming years — to maintaining and expanding the scheme.
Two caveats. It only covers customers supplied by the City, not those billed directly by Eskom, which includes a number of Cape Town-area customers. And it is a buffer, not immunity: at the worst national stages the protection ran out.
Suspended is not the same as solved
It would be easy to read 441 days and conclude the problem is over. The more careful reading is that the risk has receded, not disappeared.
Load shedding is suspended because supply and demand are currently in balance — availability has improved substantially, and new generation has come onto the grid. That balance is a running result, not a structural guarantee. A cold snap, a major unit trip or a maintenance slip can still change the arithmetic in a day, which is precisely how each previous run of good months ended.
So this page exists in its current form on purpose: a status, a counter, an explanation of the stages, and the record of what the bad years actually looked like. If the status changes, this page changes with it, on the day it happens.
The counter above is calculated from the date of the last load shedding every time the page loads. Nobody has to remember to update it.
Common questions
Is there load shedding in Cape Town today?
No. Load shedding is suspended nationally and has been since May 2025 — the longest clear run since load shedding became routine. Eskom met demand 100% of the time between April and July 2026.
How long has load shedding been suspended?
Since the last load shedding in mid-May 2025. The counter at the top of this page is calculated from that date each time the page loads, so it is always current.
What do the stages mean?
Each stage sheds roughly another 1,000 megawatts of demand: Stage 1 is 1,000 MW, Stage 6 is 6,000 MW, and the published schedule runs to Stage 8. The higher the stage, the more often and the longer your area is off. Your actual schedule comes from your municipality.
Why did Cape Town sometimes have less load shedding?
The City runs the Steenbras pumped-storage scheme, a 180 MW hydroelectric plant using two dams. Generating during peak demand has historically let the City absorb about one stage of national load shedding for its own customers — though not for those billed directly by Eskom.
Could load shedding come back?
It could. Suspension reflects supply and demand currently being in balance, not a structural fix, and previous good runs have ended with a cold snap or a major unit failure. This page is built to switch to a live status the day that happens.
What is load reduction, and is it the same thing?
No. Load shedding is national and happens when generation cannot meet demand. Load reduction is local, applied in specific areas where the network is overloaded — often through illegal connections — and it continues in parts of the country even now. Six provinces are currently free of it.
Methodology and sources
Status and the current run come from Eskom's published power system status and its statements carried through SAnews, the government news service. The count of days is not taken from those statements — it is calculated from the date of the last load shedding against the current date each time this page renders, so it cannot go stale between updates.
The annual history is harder to source cleanly, and is badged accordingly. Eskom does not publish a single authoritative annual total of load-shedding hours, so the yearly figures here are drawn from published analyses of Eskom data and carry a triangulated badge rather than a verified one. Treat them as the right shape and the right order of magnitude rather than as exact.
The stage descriptions are the published national schedule: each stage sheds roughly a further 1,000 megawatts, with the outage frequency scaling accordingly. Actual schedules are set by your municipality, so what Stage 4 means for your block depends on your City of Cape Town or Eskom schedule, not on this table alone.
- Eskom status, as reported 4 August 2026
- Eskom power system status — checked weekly, and immediately on any change
Read next
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Every source behind the site — who publishes it, and how current it is right now.
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