Six provinces remain load-reduction-free, with approximately 1.196 million customers removed from load reduction. Why some areas still lose power despite no loadsheddingAccording to Eskom, load reduction was introduced a few years ago to protect electrical infrastructure and keep both staff and customers safe. “Load reduction is only implemented when a local network is overloaded, to prevent equipment failure and to protect the neighbourhood from extended outages,” Eskom said. Load reduction runs in two daily windows, from 5am to 9am and from 5pm to 10pm. “Six provinces remain load reduction-free, with approximately 1.196 million customers removed from load reduction schedules, representing 70.8% of the 1.69 million customers originally affected,” Eskom said.