load shedding
What is the opposite of load shedding? Here is what we hold, with its meaning and related words.
Noun — The deliberate switching off of electricity to parts of a network, area by area and usually on a published schedule, so that demand does not exceed what the grid can supply and cause a total blackout.
How to use load shedding
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
stage 6 load shedding
load shedding schedule
suspend load shedding
load shedding app
Everyday vocabulary in South Africa, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Nigeria, where schedules are published in stages. Elsewhere the same thing is usually called a rolling blackout.
Etymology
A compound of load, meaning the demand on a supply system, and shedding, meaning getting rid of part of it.
Full origin of load shedding →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between load shedding and a blackout?
Load shedding is planned and rotated, cutting power to selected areas for a set period so the rest of the grid stays up. A blackout is an unplanned failure, and a nationwide grid collapse is exactly what load shedding is meant to prevent.
What do the stages of load shedding mean?
Each stage corresponds to how much power must be removed from the grid, so a higher stage means more megawatts shed and therefore longer or more frequent outages for each area. In South Africa each stage represents roughly a further 1,000 MW.
Is load shedding the same as a brownout?
No. A brownout reduces the voltage across the network so lights dim but supply continues, while load shedding cuts selected areas off completely and restores them in rotation.
