Don’t let Eskom ruin your Rugby World Cup viewing

The image above is Eskom’s monthly load-shedding schedule for Port Alfred.

It applies to every month, so the schedule on September 10 will be the same as October 10 and so on.

Stage 6 was selected for this example (let’s hope it doesn’t get that bad) but each stage is marked at what it is and is inclusive of every lower stage.

So if we are at stage 4 loadshedding at any given time, we will be off during the times indicated by the squares numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4.

If we are at stage 2, there won’t be load-shedding during the times indicated by squares numbered three and over.

Here’s an example: the opening match between France and New Zealand was on September 8 at 9.15pm.

Go to day eight on the schedule and run your eyes down, and you’ll see we were scheduled for load-shedding from 9pm until 11.30pm, even if it was only stage 1.

If it’s stage 5 or higher, we’ll be off from 9pm to 1.30am. So unless you had backup power, you would have needed to get somewhere that did.

Another example: SA’s first game was against Scotland on Sunday September 10 at 5.45pm.

Go to day 10, read down and you’ll see we had stage 3 load-shedding from 7pm to 9.30pm.

At least you could catch the first half, unless it was stage 1 or 2, in which case we’d have had power until 3am the following day.

To download the spreadsheet shown above and view other areas, go to https://www.eskom.co.za/ distribution/customerservice/outages/downloadableloadshedding-spreadsheets-for-eskomcustomers/ and select Eastern Cape. Once the spreadsheet is downloaded, select your city/town and then the relevant suburb.