A load shedding app every South African needs

By Lola at Monday, April 20, 2015 11:51:00 AM

Load shedding has a direct impact on gaming, and I'm not just talking about gamers not being able to play video games. PriceWaterhouseCooper’s 2013 annual report showed that the South African gaming sector was worth R1.6 billion in 2009, R2.4 billion in 2013 and has a projected increase to R3.7 billion for 2018. The report also indicated how SA's PC and mobile gaming were outperforming international trends while online gaming performed poorly when compared to international trends. Load shedding will decrease the combined gaming sector income, hamper our budding game development industry and also the growth of local eSports. You can read "Can gaming help shape the rise of Africa?" for a look at some of the different sectors that make up SA gaming.

We've talked about how gamers can prepare for load shedding in our "Gamer's guide to load shedding," and thanks to a tip from Graeme Hayes we can add one more thing to help you prepare for when darkness strikes.

LoadShed is an iOS and Android App that makes planning for load shedding easy. I'm sure you know how difficult it can be to navigate Eskom's load shedding schedule. The App allows you to add multiple to a suburb watch list for the following providers.

Eskom
City Power Johannesburg
City of Cape Town
City of Ekurhuleni
City of Tshwane
Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality

If your area's load shedding schedule is not listed, you can request the schedule by using the “Request Suburb/Area to be added” feature. The LoadShed team will notify you when your schedule becomes available. Another handy feature is that you will get push notifications when Eskom announces any load shedding. So you'll have time to power off your system before a power cut strikes. The LoadShed App is easy to use and will cost you nothing, download it for Android here and iOS here.

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