Johannesburg - Power utility Eskom said today it was directly load shedding City of Ekurhuleni customers in all the substations that were previously handed over to the municipality to manage.
This is effective from today.
Eskom said the City of Ekurhuleni failed to comply by not adhering to the NRS 048-9:2019 code of practise, which requires electricity distributor licence holders to reduce load during the declaration of a system emergency.
Eskom Gauteng spokesperson Amanda Qithi said the decision to take over load shedding in Ekurhuleni followed monitoring and analysis conducted by Eskom that indicated the City of Ekurhuleni was not reducing the load as per NRS 048-9:2019.
"Eskom has on numerous occasions engaged the municipality regarding its failure to load shed its customers. The power utility has taken over this role of load shedding for the City’s customers following its contravention of the requirements of the standard in the past. At the time, the City of Ekurhuleni was only permitted to load shed all the substations that fed critical loads. Subsequently, upon the City’s request, Eskom handed over the implementation of load shedding for all Ekurhuleni customers to the municipality," said Qithi.
She added: "Although Eskom notes the City of Ekurhuleni’s technical challenges in executing load shedding, it is left with no choice but to implement load shedding for the City as the non-compliance puts further strain on the already constrained national grid. Failure to implement load shedding by municipalities affects the integrity and stability of the grid, which may lead to higher stages of load shedding.“
Qithi said Eskom appealed to members of the public to assist in reducing demand by switching off non-essential appliances such as geysers and pool pumps, as this lowered demand, helped alleviate the pressure on the power system, and contributed to lower stages of load shedding.
Qithi said residential and industrial customers from the City of Ekurhuleni were urged to contact the municipality directly for the City’s load shedding schedule, or to visit its website at www.ekurhuleni.gov.za, as Eskom used the City’s schedule.
The Star