Here it's "off" 
Every 8 hours an interrupt causes the power to go off for 2 hours; that interrupt is called load shedding 
Next one in 30 minutes 
Sounds bad, indeed. But you have some warning! Here, it's less frequent, (typ. weekly), but weather induced so totally random; restoration can be 3 seconds, 3 hours, or a day or more. No one runs a desktop PC without a UPS, and portables are much more tolerant.
C
That is going to work really well with the hot water systems and such, isn't it? 
Not to mention fridges.
@Paul_B, yep. Below is probably more than you bargained for 
The biggest problem is the power surge when power comes back on. So I try to switch everything off once power goes off and switch it back on a few minutes after power comes back on. There is a risk that I forget to switch fridge/freezer back on 
Hot water is not much of a problem except for the shower but we are already in the habit of running it only for 2 or 3 hours a day due to the costs of electricity nowadays; that reduced the usage by 30 percent. Considering to switch to a gas geyser, we're already cooking with gas so hot water for coffee is no issue 
Also considering to switch (partially) to solar power but haven't figured that one out completely.
A lot of people have generators; they spoil our (forced) romantic dinner by candle light
No, I don't think so. 
The point about water heaters is that they are going to go on and heat in order to bring the water up to the desired temperature, so "load shedding" will make absolutely no difference to the demand they pose.
I was musing on exactly what "load shedding" would achieve at all. Having no power for a certain proportion of the time means that both automatic and manual systems will respond by increasing the load when the power is on, toward a similar overall requirement.
The only real effects it can have will be to defer the times of peak demand; that is to "smooth" the demand, or to make power unavailable when people actually need it and turn it back on at a time when they are simply unable to use it. But your suggestion of a predictable 2 hours out of ten does not seem to fit that pattern, all the less if those times necessarily "drift" across the 24 hour cycle. 
But whose problem is this? Does it cause you a problem and if so, how? It will certainly be a problem for the supplier.
This really should become it's own topic now.
The surge is hard on refrigeration units(compressors, A/C), because, at least here, we can see that the grid voltage takes many seconds, sometimes a minute or more, to stabilize. We have a voltage display in our kitchen precisely for that reason. Less important with our line-sync'd generator, as the transfer panel doesn't reconnect to the grid for 10-15 seconds after grid-up.
But, at least for @sterretje, the problem is predictable, so holding equipment off on grid restoration is easier. For the less fortunate here, grid restoration is random; if you go to work in a blackout, you may not want to leave your fridge, freezer, etc. unplugged, but it is advisable.
Split as requested.
They do indeed drift. Couple of days 8-10, 16-18 and 00-02, couple of days 6-8, 14-16 and 22-24, couple of days 10-12, 18-20 and 02-04. On good days they might cancel the ones that span from 00-04 or maybe even 00-06. Other areas are on other times. So they do spread it to cater for the demand.
The most important ones for the supplier are the morning (04-10) and evening (16-22); people bath, make breakfast or prepare supper; as it's winter, those times also require additional light although that is minimal compared to the hot water requirements by a geyser.
Stir in the power requirements of even 25% of those homes needing a full recharge for their auto, and all plugging it in randomly in that same 4 PM-6 PM period. Some locations are talking about having remote overrides on that, same as some jurisdictions have for A/C control/setback.
Interesting, indeed.
C
When the public refuses to pay for redundancy in the electrical grid the only thing left to do is share the wealth pain.
In our house, important equipment is powered thru a latching relay.
Power goes off, relay drops, manual reset relay to restore power.
Prevents that bumping impact when power is restored.
Rest In Pieces everyone's HVAC 
Systems should have a regulator to lockout AC for a period of time.
Where are you? ZA?
Yep, South Africa.
I visited SA in 2016, I don't remember power cuts then. Was I lucky or have things deteriorated since then?
It's not the public. Of course we will complain when we have to pay more; and prices for electricity have gone up.
And yes, there are people that refuse to pay and happily bypass meters or run an extension lead from a street light to their house; and usually nothing is done about it.
I will stay away from all the politics that are surrounding this and that has allowed the current situation to happen.
From memory, it also was an issue then. But it has become far worse. We have aging power plants that are in desperate need of replacement and we need more generating capacity because the higher demand. There was a project to build two power plants (it would not have been enough); when they were finished, they did not meet any of the criteria of a succesful project (within time, within budget and meeting the specification); not sure if you can consider them finished.
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I've read that the government owned power company has significant debts that it can just about service with the bills from its customers. That then makes it unusually hostile to private solar. Wind seems anathema too for some reason, which is a shame because it looks as though ZA could do well with renewables.
Rolling outages are really pushing consumers towards solar and batteries though I suspect (noisy) generators are the simpler answer.
Australia is pretty much the same. 
That debt is something like 26 billion US$.
What is private solar? Independent power providers that will hop on the transmission network? Or the consumer at home?
IPPs are allowed to hop on the network; max. capacity for each is 100MW (was 10MW about a month, maybe two, ago). User at home will be penalised by municipalities if one goes completely of the grid 
So how does that work in those far away places (the outback (?))? Does your power provider roll out a few 100 km of cable to that one farm? Or do those farms use e.g. solar and have to pay a penalty for something that they paid for themselves?
If they are completely - properly - off the grid, how can they be penalised?
Outback and farms are an exception, not the point. Until recently, they would have had a diesel generator and complained about fuel prices; presumably (not particularly publicised) they are now installing serious solar and batteries. No specific penalty other than simply isolation.
Current point of discussion is farmers upset about the threat of compulsory easement and land acquisition for new power infrastructure traversing their property to facilitate solar/ wind farms and interstate load balancing.
The penalty for more urban consumers is that due to the proliferation of rooftop solar, not only is the rebate for energy returned a pittance - one sixth or one seventh of that for incoming energy which is itself inflating, but the daily "Supply charge" simply for connection to the network tends to exceed the actual usage charge. (And that whether or not you have the rooftop solar.)
So going "off-grid" is becoming increasingly desirable in the suburbs.
