Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has spoken out about just how negatively its infrastructure is impacted by Eskom’s non-stop load shedding at high stages, including Stage 6, even despite the contingency measures that are in place.
The City has shared how not only its service delivery, and infrastructure is affected, but also said that it impacts its ability to protect its customers from a stage or two of load shedding at times.
The City explained that load shedding affected its services in the following ways:
Activation of Disaster Co-ordinating Team
Following Eskom’s Stage 6 activation, the City’s transversal Disaster Operations Centre has been activated to mitigate any potential impact for Cape Town residents.
The situation is being closely monitored, the City said. Traffic and additional enforcement resources are on standby, and ready to be deployed if required for any public safety issues, or in areas affected by prolonged power outages.
Signalised traffic intersections
Nearly 75% of signalised intersections on the City’s road network is equipped with Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems.
This is 1 228 of the City’s 1 652 traffic signals.
Unfortunately, the UPS batteries do not have sufficient time to recharge when Eskom implements non-stop Stage 4 load shedding or above.
- Road users are reminded to treat intersections as four-way stops when the signals are out.
- Please report continuous outages to our 24-hour Transport Information Centre on 0800 65 64 63.
- Load shedding-related sewer overflows
Unfortunately, with high, prolonged stages of load shedding, there could be sewer spills and overflows, despite the City’s contingency measures.
An added challenge is the dumping of inappropriate material in the sewer system, which leads to blockages.
“Where sustained high stages of load shedding and illegal dumping impact on City sewer pump stations and related infrastructure, we immediately act in accordance with a standing sewage spill protocol to facilitate a well-coordinated, swift and efficient response across various City departments.
“The swift response by City teams means that visitors and residents can rest assured that we take immediate action to do repairs and contain the impact; and we put safety first by effecting temporary precautionary closures until water quality results show it is safe for recreational use,” the City said.
“In fact, quick responses from our teams over the festive season enabled us to keep 99% of our coastline open and safe for all at any time.”
The City added that it is doing all it can to ensure a safe, pleasant and healthy coastal environment for all, this is despite challenges beyond our control, among which high stages of load shedding imposed by the national government.
The City also said:
- They are continuously reviewing beach closure protocol to ensure an efficient and effective response that will limit the impact on users and the environment.
- In addition, they have started a trial of an Uninterrupted Power Supply system at one of the pump stations to determine how this will limit the impact of load shedding on its infrastructure. They cannot disclose the location of the UPS as the batteries are prone to vandalism and theft.
“It is important to add that the City’s sewer pump stations need electricity to function effectively and convey sewage to Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTWS) where it can be treated.”
As a means to mitigate the impact of load shedding:
- Larger priority sewer pump stations are fitted with permanent generators as a measure to increase the resilience of sanitation supply systems
- Maintenance staff are on standby and will use mobile generators to power smaller pumps.
- All pump stations are fitted with telemetry to help monitor the sump levels of the facilities
Load shedding hammering electricity infrastructure
The City said its maintenance and management of its electricity network remains top notch, however the infrastructure takes a hammering due to the constant Eskom load shedding at high levels.
“The damage to infrastructure often leads to prolonged outages and increased service requests. Sometimes, pockets of areas are excluded from load-shedding for a period in order to do critical, necessary maintenance work,” they said.
Secondary tripping
There are also outages resulting from secondary tripping.
This happens when the electricity comes back on after load shedding. However, due to electricity returning at the same time in a particular pocket of an area, the power often trips and shuts off again. Hence one would experience this as power coming on, and a few minutes later, it is off.
To help reduce the occurrence of this, residents have been advised to switch off electrical appliances ahead of load-shedding to prevent secondary outages.
Under the cover of darkness: Illegal connections, electrical cable theft/substation damage
Illegal connections and damage to infrastructure can also lead to outages. Non-stop load shedding at high stages leaves infrastructure vulnerable.
The City monitors hotspot areas but residents are encouraged to report any incidents of theft, vandalism and damage to infrastructure to the City and the South African Police Service.
The City offers a reward of R5 000 to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest, confiscation of stolen or illegal goods or the handing in of illegal or stolen goods.
This reward is also applicable to information leading to the arrest of people vandalising, damaging or stealing electricity infrastructure or installing illegal connections.
Public Emergency Centre - 021 480 7700.