More load shedding worries

City Power customers will remain on the four-hour load shedding schedule, despite Eskom reducing their power cuts by two hours in Gauteng.

The power utility announced this week that load shedding in parts of Gauteng and the North West will be reduced from four hours to two hours.

Eskom said the reduced hours are to address the indirect consequences that come with longer periods of power interruptions particularly during the second wave of Covid-19.

But this is only for Eskom customers with the new schedule implemented yesterday, said spokesman Sikonathi Mantshantsha.

“The reduced load shedding hours apply to customers directly supplied by Eskom. This means load shedding will last two hours at a time,” he said.

The new schedule affects Gauteng residents of Merafong, Mogale City, Randfontein local municipalities, Vaal areas of Orange Farm, Sebokeng and Sharpeville and North West areas of Klerksdorp, Mmabatho and Vryburg.

Joburg residents living in Cosmo City, Diepsloot, Ivory Park, Midrand, Randburg, Sandton and Soweto would also be affected.

But customers of Joburg’s City Power will however remain in the current fourhour schedule.

This was due to issues of capacity to manage load shedding, the interconnectivity of their network and the ability of the City Power infrastructure to handle the load shedding demand, said City Power spokesman Isaac Mangena.

“As things stand, we are struggling to keep up with the load shedding at four hours – imagine with twohour frequency. Most of the pinch we feel is with regard to the knock-on effect on our network, infrastructure and manpower,” he said.

“We are sticking to switching off the power for four hours during load shedding because that means customers will lose power less frequently and it has a reduced impact on the health of the power grid.”

Mangena said City Power was switching off once a day for four hours, and again after 24 hours. Changing to a two-hour schedule means switching off at least two to three times a day.