Eskom assumes control of Ekurhuleni’s load shedding

Eskom has announced that it has taken control of Ekurhuleni’s load shedding as of Tuesday, 24 July, because the city failed to load shed its customers, putting strain on the grid.

Eskom says it has taken control of load shedding in all substations that were previously handed over to the city to manage. The decision follows a period of monitoring and analysis indicating that Ekurhuleni had not been reducing its electrical load as required in terms of an agreed code of practice.

“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 the City of Ekurhuleni’s (CoE) customers following its contravention of the requirements of the standard in the past,” says Eskom.

Ekurhuleni was previously permitted to load shed all the substations that feed critical loads. That agreement was extended to all of Ekurhuleni’s customers at the city’s request.

“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,” Eskom says in a statement.

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“Failure to implement load shedding by municipalities affects the integrity and stability of the grid, which may lead to higher stages of load shedding.”

“Eskom has appealed to the public to reduce electricity consumption by switching off nonessential appliances such as geysers and pool pumps as this lowers demand and helps alleviate pressure on the grid, allowing for lower stages of load shedding.”

Load shedding has returned to Stage 4 for much of this week due to higher demand. According to News24, Ekurhuleni will ask Eskom not to load shed certain critical substations with a high concentration of large industries as this would impact the local economy and threaten jobs.

In his State of the City address in April this year, executive mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana outlined plans to reduce and eventually eliminate load shedding while improving access to electricity by broadening services to new developments and informal settlements.

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