Know when the power’s going off

Confused residents of Buffalo City have found themselves caught between Eskom loadshedding and an erratic BCM power supply.
Dispatch has researched some ways on how to find out when an area will be hit by loadshedding.
Between the BCM strikes, which have rocked the city for the past two weeks, and Eskom’s recent decision to once again periodically launch the city into darkness, residents have found it difficult to discern the cause of their latest power outage.
Fortunately for those with smart phones, there are many apps available for both Android and Apple devices which can solve this dilemma for you.
The two which the Dispatch has tested and found to be fairly accurate are: Load Shedding Notifier and EskomSePush.
These apps will notify the user when their area can expect loadshedding from Eskom.
Load Shedding Notifier is available from the Google Play Store on Android devices but not on Apple devices. When you launch the app, which is only 2.7mb, users will be presented with the option to search for the suburb in which you live.
You should then be able to select your suburb and save it. This will take you to a screen showing the outage times, in your suburb, for the next seven days and the current Eskom loadshedding stage.
EskomSePush, which is about 7.3mb, is available from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
When the app is launched the user also searches for their suburb, selects it and is then shown that day’s loadshedding time.
Both apps are free and multiple suburbs can be added for commuters and those who are constantly on the move.
If one does not own a smart phone or just finds apps too difficult to figure out, then an Eskom loadshedding schedule for BCM can be downloaded from the Dispatch website in a PDF format.
The schedule shows which block your suburb or area falls into and when that block can expect loadshedding for every day, and loadshedding stage.
Eskom spokesperson Zama Mpondwana, on Monday, did not answer questions on how long South Africans could expect the current bout of load- shedding to last...

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