Johannesburg - Eskom and City Power would not be able to cope with more cold snaps on the way because increased residential demand was stretching their already strained electrical distribution networks to their limits.
“The point is that there’s rapidly increasing urban density, whether in Soweto, Diepsloot, Ruimsig or Roodepoort … in the informal settlements all around Joburg and Gauteng and electricity consumption is higher than the desired levels that the distribution network was designed for,” explained Chris Yelland, an energy expert.
This week, power outages left Joburg suburbs such as Randburg, Hyde Park, Parkhurst, Craighall, Soweto and Cosmo City, in the dark while the country was in the grip of a cold front that saw electricity demand surge.
“You can’t keep the network same and put more and more people into urban areas. You need to upgrade your distribution network to take into account the increasing population density. If you fall behind, you don't spend enough, you’re not doing your upgrading work, you will find your distribution networks reaching the limits of their design.”
Eskom stated this week that there was no load shedding for the past 10 months and that the large-scale power outages could not be mistaken for load shedding.
Yelland remarked that while Eskom and City Power were not conducting manual rotational load shedding, there were “many other kinds of load shedding” that were automatic protection devices that tripped out to protect the electricity network.
“When you trip out, it’s a power outage, that is a kind of load shedding but is not rotational load shedding. Cable theft, breakdowns, illegal connections, the lack of maintenance, it all leads to these power interruptions.”
It was well-known, Yelland said, that the distribution maintenance backlog at a municipal level and within Eskom stood at over R60 billion. “The National Electricity Regulator of South Africa has often stated that the lack of distribution maintenance is a ticking time bomb that is coming to haunt us. It started to haunt us in the past few days and I’m sure we’ll see it more with further cold snaps.”
While Eskom said power had been restored in most areas, illegal connections continued to affect the electricity grid. Intermittent power outages were caused by overloading of the network.
Yumna Sheik, a spokesman for City Power, said its teams were working to “disconnect” the illegal connections across Joburg.
The South African Weather Service warned more cold weather can be expected in the coming weeks starting tomorrow(sun). “The next significant cold front will move in over the western parts of Western and Northern Cape tomorrow where rainy and cold weather is expected,” said senior forecaster William Msimanga. “The cold conditions will reach the Eastern Cape and southern Free State by Monday,” he said.
Temperatures were expected to climb by Wednesday. “Winter is just starting. We’re still going to experience cold and rainy weather and possible snowfalls on the mountains and high ground areas.”
Saturday Star