Cape Town - Another week of load shedding is expected to negatively impact critical City infrastructure, especially at Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTWs) and pump stations, after Eskom announced that more power cuts would be experienced this week.
Eskom alerted that Stage 4 load shedding would be implemented until midnight on Monday, load shedding would be reduced to Stage 2 until 5am on Tuesday, after which Stage 4 would resume.
Eskom said this load shedding sequence would probably be repeated throughout the week. This was a result of the loss of five large generation units and a delay in returning five units to service.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said as the generation capacity shortages persisted over the next few weeks, load shedding would continue to be implemented at various stages.
However, this period of load shedding was proving too much for the constraints of the City’s critical infrastructure.
Water and Sanitation Mayco member Zahid Badroodien said: “The City will be reaching out to Eskom to consider exemption from load shedding for all of our waste water treatment works.
“These facilities, in addition to our water treatment plants and pump stations, are an essential service and it is vital that they operate at full capacity to protect our water supply and purify waste water sufficiently before it enters the environment,” Badroodien said.
He said some of the infrastructure and sewerage operations were already under strain after this prolonged period of load shedding.
“This equipment is simply not designed to be switched off and on with such regularity, nor do they contain batteries that are able to provide power for more than 10 hours a day,” Badroodien said.
Energy Mayco member Beverley van Reenen said the City would continue to maintain its reserves to enable protection from the worst stages of load shedding for its customers this week but the risk of vandalism and theft of critical infrastructure remained high.
“Vandalism under the cover of load shedding is an increasingly common phenomenon as criminals strip substations and kiosks. These actions cause outages,” Van Reenen said.
Badroodien said just last week the Zandvliet WWTW was brought to a standstill as a result of stolen Eskom copper cables that were only replaced by the utility on Saturday night.