Understanding Eskom’s Load Reduction: What It Means and Why It Matters

For many South Africans, power interruptions are a daily reality. While the term load shedding has long been familiar, Eskom has increasingly spoken about load reduction, a measure that may not be as well understood. Both involve power cuts, but they occur for very different reasons. Understanding this distinction is key to making sense of why electricity goes off, even when Eskom insists the grid has enough generation capacity.

What is Load Reduction?

Load reduction is a targeted intervention Eskom uses in specific areas when local electricity demand exceeds what the infrastructure can safely handle. It is most often applied in neighbourhoods or towns where illegal connections, electricity theft, or overloaded transformers put the distribution network at risk. When too many households or businesses draw power at the same time, equipment such as transformers can overheat, fail, or even explode. To prevent this, Eskom deliberately switches off supply in those areas during peak hours, usually mornings and evenings.

Unlike national outages, load reduction is not about Eskom running out of electricity to generate, it’s about protecting local infrastructure from collapse. In this way, load reduction is a safety measure designed to avoid longer, unplanned blackouts that could last days or weeks if equipment is damaged.

How Load Reduction Works

Eskom generally implements load reduction during peak demand times, such as 05:00–09:00 and 17:00–22:00. These are the hours when households use the most power, for heating, cooking, and lighting. Notices are issued by Eskom’s regional offices, often via SMS or social media, alerting communities of scheduled cuts.

For example, in winter months, townships in Gauteng or rural villages in Limpopo may experience daily evening power cuts under load reduction. Paying customers in those areas are also affected, but Eskom stresses that the measure is necessary to prevent even worse outcomes, such as transformers failing and leaving everyone without power for weeks.

The Difference Between Load Reduction and Load Shedding

Although they both result in the power going off, the two measures serve different purposes. Load shedding is a national, scheduled intervention triggered when Eskom’s power plants cannot generate enough electricity to meet the country’s overall demand. It is about balancing supply and demand on a national scale to prevent a grid collapse. Load reduction, on the other hand, is localised and triggered when demand on a particular line, substation, or transformer exceeds safe limits, often due to illegal connections or excessive use. In short: load shedding prevents a national blackout, while load reduction prevents local infrastructure from burning out.

Why Load Reduction Has Increased

In recent years, Eskom’s generation performance has shown signs of improvement, with extended periods free from national load shedding. However, at the same time, network overloading in certain provinces has worsened. Cold winters, high levels of electricity theft, and aging infrastructure have made load reduction a regular feature in parts of Gauteng, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape.

Eskom has acknowledged the frustration this causes, especially for paying customers, but argues that it is the only option left once transformers reach dangerous load levels. The utility has also launched campaigns warning that burned-out transformers can take months to replace, prolonging outages even further.

Eskom’s Plan to End Load Reduction

To reduce reliance on load reduction, Eskom has rolled out several initiatives.

These include:

• Upgrading infrastructure by replacing and strengthening overloaded transformers and lines.

• Installing smart meters to detect tampering and manage electricity use more efficiently.

• Cracking down on illegal connections, with dedicated teams removing unlawful wiring in hotspot areas.

• Community education campaigns urging households to save power and use electricity legally.

Eskom has set a target of cutting load reduction instances by 15–20% by March 2026 and eliminating them completely by 2027. Priority provinces include Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal, where theft and overloading are most acute.

Eskom Load Reduction Schedules: Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp, and Carletonville

Potchefstroom (JB Marks Municipality, NW)

• Current Schedule: No load reduction is presently scheduled for Potchefstroom. Eskom’s latest North West load reduction schedules (Sept 2025) list specific high-loss villages and townships, but Potchefstroom’s suburbs do not appear on the list ourpower.co.za. The JB Marks Local Municipality (which covers Potchefstroom) has not issued any load reduction notices for its municipal supply areas, indicating normal supply aside from any national load shedding.

Klerksdorp (City of Matlosana, NW)

• Current Schedule: No continuous load reduction schedule is in effect for Klerksdorp’s urban area. As with Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp is not listed among Eskom’s targeted load reduction areas in North West ourpower.co.za. The City of Matlosana municipality has not announced any planned power cuts beyond national load shedding schedules (which have been largely suspended in late 2025).

Carletonville (Merafong City, Gauteng)

• Current Schedule: Carletonville’s municipal supply areas (the town itself) do not have a separate load reduction schedule, but Eskom’s load reduction has been affecting the Khutsong township on Carletonville’s outskirts. Gauteng’s weekly load reduction schedules throughout September 2025 consistently included Khutsong as an affected area citizen.co.za. For the week of 22–28 September 2025, for example, Eskom confirmed it would implement load reduction daily from 5:00–9:00 each morning and 17:00–22:00 each evening in various high-loss communities, Khutsong being one of the neighbourhoods regularly hit by these cuts. Residents there face roughly 5 to 6 hours without power per day during peak times under this program.

The Bigger Picture

Load reduction is often misunderstood as just another form of load shedding. In reality, it is a separate measure focused on protecting local infrastructure from overloading and preventing catastrophic failures. While it can feel unfair to paying customers, Eskom insists that it is the only way to keep transformers intact and communities supplied in the long run. With infrastructure upgrades and tougher action against theft, Eskom’s long-term goal is to eliminate load reduction, but until then, South Africans in high-risk areas should expect it to remain part of daily life.

All image credit Eskom

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