1. First, simply search for your suburb name.
2. If nothing matches, try search for an area nearby, particularly a larger one.
3. If that fails, try search for the larger area in which your suburb is situated. For example, some smaller towns and cities like George all fall under the same load shedding block. So instead of searching for your suburb, widen your search to George.
4. If that doesn't work, try do the opposite - search for a smaller area or street inside your area. Some municipalities like Msunduzi and Buffalo City include street names to clarify the blocks.

For more information, view our article on What the different stages of load shedding mean.

• Most likely you are experiencing a general power failure and not loadshedding. Report this to your local municipality or Eskom. In future we will help you do this via the site, so check back.
• There is a chance that the schedule is incorrect. If your power is off and you are sure it's not a general power outage, please get in touch via whatsapp and we’ll look into it.
• There is a chance that Eskom updated the loadshedding stage with immediate effect. Reload your schedule to check for any updates.
• Lastly, during higher stages, for example stage 5 and up, Eskom has noted that substations can take a longer time to come back online and you may experience that your loadshedding timeslot is extended.

City of Cape Town provides schedules and updates here.

City Power provides updates here. However, you will still need to do some manual work to get your loadshedding times on their page.

Load shedding is the intentional reduction of electricity supply to certain areas in order to prevent the collapse of the overall electricity system. This can happen when there is not enough power generation to meet demand. Typically this is implemented nationally using a rotational schedule where different suburbs, towns and/or cities are assigned to blocks which determines when their power will be off. For example, all suburbs assigned to block 1 might go without power from 8am-10am, and block 2 might go without power from 10am-12pm. Eskom implements load shedding at various "stages" (1 to 8) depending on how large the energy shortfall is. At higher stages, areas will experience more time periods with no power.

• Increased peak demand causing an electricity generation shortfall;
• Problems at power stations that reduce the amount of electricity that can be generated;
• Transmission problems that prevent electricity from being transported to where it is needed; and,
• Load shedding may also be implemented as a precautionary measure when there is a possibility of the national grid collapsing.

Assuming that your ISP is able to supply internet during loadshedding (contact them to find out), you need some way to provide power to your WiFi router (and other devices involved in providing internet, such as the fibre ONT, WiFi boosters etc). There are a few ways to go about this:

• Using an uninterrupted power supply (UPS),
• Using solar,
• Using an inverter + backup battery solution (which can be used with solar),
• Using a generator

The most affordable solution is a mini UPS device. See Surviving Loadshedding: An Introduction To Loadshedding Solutions for a more in depth guide and recommendations.