South Africa: How the City of Cape Town Managed to Avoid Stage 6 Load Shedding Thanks to Hydroelectric Scheme

29 June 2022
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
analysis By Victoria O'regan and Onke Ngcuka

While the rest of South Africa is being hit with Stage 6 load shedding, the City of Cape Town has offered some relief to its residents through the use of the Steenbras hydroelectric scheme. We unpack why Cape Town residents are currently only experiencing Stage 4 blackouts and what challenges other municipalities face in doing the same.

Stage 6 load shedding, which was last implemented in December 2019, returned this week. It means that most South Africans will go for up to six hours a day without electricity as the national grid sheds 6,000MW in an effort to prevent complete collapse. This was triggered by "unlawful and unprotected labour action" that disrupted Eskom's operations, the struggling power utility said on Tuesday.

Read in Daily Maverick: Eskom strike appears to be over after unions call on workers to 'normalise the situation'

But as South Africans brave the cold winter without power, Capetonians' load shedding experience will be limited to Stage 4, thanks to the Steenbras Hydro Pump Station.

How does the Steenbras Hydro Pump Station work?

The 180MW Steenbras Hydro Pump Station (SHPS) is a pumped storage scheme, which consists of four turbines that are used to generate electricity.

The City...

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