Eskom said on Monday that it will hand over responsibility for almost all load shedding in Johannesburg to City Power from 6 November.

“The move follows an agreement between the two power utilities whereby City Power will take over load shedding operations for most of its areas which were previously load shed by Eskom,” Eskom and City Power said in a joint statement.

They explained that the agreement will “bring changes to the load shedding blocks, which will affect the schedule in areas load shed by City Power in Johannesburg and Eskom across Gauteng”.

Areas currently cut by City Power will remain on a two-hour schedule even during load shedding stage 5 and higher.

“The two entities are both committed to ensuring the security of supply is not compromised, and the obligations … are followed and complied with as per distribution licensing conditions to protect the integrity and stability of the national grid even with the affected changes.”

The revised blocks and schedules will be available on the City Power and Eskom websites on 6 November.

There are a few areas in Johannesburg that will remain supplied by Eskom due to the “configuration of the network and technical complexities”.