Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has released the much-awaited rotational load-shedding schedule.
The new schedule was set up after a number of complaints from residents who claimed the old schedule, that was created in 2008 for “occasional” power cuts, was not fair and inconvenienced many.
It has been designed to provide “a more frequent rotation” and will work in accordance with days of the month.
Mayco member for utility services Ernest Sonnenberg said the old schedule worked according to days of the week.
He said some residents were in situations where they experienced repeated power outages at the same inconvenient times.
Towards the end of last year, areas such as Muizenberg, Retreat and Ocean View experienced outages from 8pm until 10.30pm every week for all three stages.
With the new schedule these areas will be without electricity twice a month during stage one, should Eskom instruct load shedding. Areas close to the Cape Town CBD will also experience a more flexible load shedding time table for stage one.
Before, load shedding would start at 6pm until 8.30pm during the week for all three stages.
Now the city centre will be out of lights at that particular time only twice a month.
A mobile version of the load shedding page is available where residents may gain access by selecting a new tab on the city’s mobile homepage.
Those who live in Eskom-supplied areas will not be able to use this schedule.
They need to go on to the Eskom website.
Sonnenberg said the electricity outages will generally last for about two-and-a half-hours.
If residents experience outages for longer than the specified time they should send a SMS to the city’s technical operations centre on 31220.
One area will be affected at a time during stage one, which is considered the least serious. During stage 3b, the most serious, four areas will be affected at a time.
The new schedule and area map has also been updated on the city’s website www.capetown.gov.za
Sonnenberg said: “Load shedding is declared by Eskom as a measure of last resort to prevent a country-wide collapse of the power system. Eskom’s national control centre instructs municipal electricity control centres country-wide when to implement load shedding and at what stage. This situation is therefore completely beyond the city’s control.”
He advised residents to switch off all electronics and appliances when the power is due to go off.
“Sometimes, when power is restored, there is the potential for it to come back with a spike in the voltage, which can be damaging to electronic devices such as computers, television sets, DVD players, etc. Residents can take precautions by ensuring that these appliances are not only turned off, but also unplugged during this period.”
Cape Argus