Eskom takes over Ekurhuleni’s load shedding

Eskom has announced that it will be taking over the implementation of load shedding in the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) following what the power utility called the city’s failure to reduce load on its customers.

The city had been handling the load shedding of some customers after the power utility handed over some substations for management.

The power utility said it has been monitoring the city’s load reduction.

“The CoE failed to comply by not adhering to the NRS 048-9:2019 code of practice which requires electricity distributor licence holders to reduce load during a declaration of a system emergency.

“The decision to take over load shedding in Ekurhuleni follows monitoring and analysis conducted by Eskom which indicate that CoE is not reducing the load as per NRS 048-9:2019,” Eskom said.

The electricity provider said it has, in the past, engaged with Ekurhuleni “regarding its failure to load shed its customers”.

“The power utility has taken over this role of load shedding the CoE’s customers following its contravention of the requirements of the standard in the past. At the time, the CoE was only permitted to load shed all the substations that feed critical loads. Subsequently, upon the CoE’s request, Eskom handed over the implementation of load shedding of all the CoE customers to the municipality,” Eskom said.

The power utility emphasised that it has no alternative in the matter as a failure to load shed puts increased burden on the grid.

“Although Eskom notes the CoE’s technical challenges in executing load shedding, it is left with no choice but to implement load shedding for the CoE 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.

“Residential and industrial customers from the City of Ekurhuleni are urged to contact the municipality directly for the city’s load shedding schedule or to visit their website…as Eskom uses the city’s schedule.

“Eskom appeals to members of the public to to assist in reducing demand by switching off non-essential appliances such as geysers and pool pumps as this lowers demand and helps in alleviating the pressure on the power system and contributes to lower stages of load shedding,” the power utility said.

Meanwhile, the City of Ekurhuleni says it will be engaging the power utility on the matter.

“The city will be engaging Eskom not to shed some of our critical substations in areas with a high concentration of large industries, because this will not only impact the economy of the region but also threatens jobs.

“The city will be proposing load curtailment during negotiation with Eskom. Load curtailment is the load reduction obtained from customers who can reduce demand on instruction. This also means that in the event of an emergency declaration, industrial customers must be able to reduce their load by a certain percentage,” the CoE said.