eThekwini Municipality said it will not implement load reduction in the City as it has enough capacity to supply customers with electricity.
The assurance comes after Johannesburg’s City Power announced the implementation of load reduction in over 80 suburbs across Johannesburg, including Edendale and Lenasia South.
City Power said load reductions are necessary in areas of high electricity use to prevent system overloading and infrastructure from damage.
An energy expert said load reduction in Johannesburg is caused by a combination of illegal connections, overpopulation and not maintaining infrastructure.
City Power said it will be implementing load reduction to protect the infrastructure that is overloaded.
“When it comes to the winter period, electricity usage is high and the risk of transformers blowing up is high.
“Illegal connections are one of the reasons for the high usage and that is why we came up with a plan to implement load reduction. If a transformer were to explode due to overloading, residents would face the prospect of not having power for two or three weeks and we want to be responsible and avoid that situation.”
City Power added that the building of shacks and backyard rooms in township areas has overloaded the system.
“We don’t have control in limiting the supply. They are bypassing electricity metres and making it difficult to control. We want to make it clear we are not targeting a certain sector of communities, we are implementing load reduction to protect our infrastructure.”
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said currently, there is no consideration for load reduction in eThekwini.
“The City’s infrastructure is sufficiently robust and has the capacity to supply all of its customers.
“However, the City is facing challenges with infrastructure and electricity theft, which are affecting the ability to maintain a consistent supply of electricity,” said Sisilana, adding that they are doing their best to ensure the stability of the system.
“Despite these challenges, we are continuously enhancing our maintenance processes to ensure the stability of our electrical network.”
Professor Wikus van Niekerk, Dean of Engineering at Stellenbosch University, said he doesn’t anticipate load reduction to be widespread in South Africa.
“My understanding of the load reduction is that this is implemented by City Power to protect their ageing, and under-maintained, distribution network infrastructure. It is definitely not because Eskom cannot supply the required electricity.”
EE Business Intelligence managing director and energy analyst Chris Yelland said load reduction is not limited to Johannesburg and is not something new.
“The City of Tshwane is also implementing load reduction and other areas are also implementing load reduction in isolated incidents. The thing is that we have just become more aware of it. The first reason why we are experiencing load reduction is because of the high usage of electricity during the winter peak periods such as the morning and evening. This has overloaded the system and made load reduction necessary.”
Yelland said a lack of maintenance has resulted in this situation. “We are facing challenges of illegal connections which overload the system and overpopulation of people moving to the city for jobs. However, the other issue is that infrastructure has not been maintained and improved, you can’t leave infrastructure for 20 years and expect it to be functioning the same.
It’s just a lack of investment from the City and not managing funds properly.”
Yelland said he also doesn’t expect any major load reduction in eThekwini.
“They have a good electricity department and are doing better than most cities. They may have isolated incidents but I don’t think they will have any major load reduction.”
The Mercury