If you’re reading this and you’re not at your house and won’t be until after 5pm, you may just come home to darkness: Eskom has just announced loadshedding for today.

Stage two loadshedding will be implemented from 5pm to 10pm, the national utility said on Twitter.

Stage 2 load shedding to be implemented from 17:00-22:00 due to increased demand and generating units being on maintenance

— Eskom Media Desk (@Eskom_MediaDesk) August 4, 2015

Of course, it doesn’t help that the news comes less than two hours before loadshedding is due to start and you may not have enough time to prepare, but hopefully, if your supply comes from the City of Joburg, you’ll be able to dodge it if loadlimiting kicks in.

You can check if/when your area will be affected on the Eskom website, or alternatively on News24’s excellent Gridwatch website.

[Image – CC 2.0 by Lisa Williams]