City Power, Johannesburg’s municipal electricity supplier, has moved to a two-hour load-shedding schedule and announced changes to its load-shedding blocks – both implemented with immediate effect.

The move comes after City Power appeared to resist an Eskom-led effort to move Johannesburg to two-hour rolling blackouts instead of the four-hour blocks used previously — albeit the frequency of outages will effectively double.

“We are aware that the implementation of this schedule at such short notice does not allow our customers to plan their lives and the lives of their businesses, and for that we apologise for the inconvenience caused,” the company said in a statement on Friday evening.

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City Power’s new load-shedding blocks

It said it had already been in discussions with Eskom about moving to two-hour blocks — and aligning the city with most other regions in the country.

“The talks with Eskom and the plan towards aligning our load shedding schedules and to communicate the new schedule with you before its implementation have now compelled us to implement a two-hour load-shedding schedule before embarking on a proper engagement with you as the customer.

“Please note that the two-hour load-shedding schedule is now in effect across the City of Johannesburg,” City Power said.  — (c) 2021 NewsCentral Media