Pretoria- The City of Johannesburg has announced that it will be excluding key customers, essential services, and some businesses from rotational power cuts.
The changes will start rolling out gradually from June 2023.
In a statement released on Thursday, Environment and Infrastructure Services MMC, Jack Sekwaila, said the move was done to protect livelihoods, attract investments, and boost the city’s economy where network configurations allow.
He added that most small businesses were forced to close due to the impact of load shedding while still recovering from Covid–19.
“The City has the responsibility to attract investments, retain those already operating within Joburg, and secure the jobs for our residents. This hasn’t been possible with the relentless load shedding that has heavily impacted the economic activity within the City, leading to some businesses closing down while others emigrated to other provinces where reliable electricity supply is guaranteed,” he said.
Sekwaila said most large power users and key business customers are already excluded from load-shedding through the load curtailment agreements.
“Other businesses, especially those in industrial areas that employ many people, will be gradually excluded and premised on the reconfiguration of the network and other processes.”
He said the new arrangement would add many other essential services to the load-shedding exclusion.
“The City is already exempting most health and water services following the request by the government last year. We may not right away be able to exclude all at once because of the embedded nature of the network,’’ read the statement.
Sekwaila said City Power is also working towards implementing a new load shedding schedule that will see the current four-hour schedule happening from stage 4 reduced to two-hour slots up until stage 8.
City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava said technicians and engineers have been working hard for the past few months, among others conducting simulations, looking for ways to reduce the burden of load-shedding.
“To achieve standardisation, City Power identified 16 blocks that can shed the required load per block. It is important to mention that the substations serving the Reuven, Hursthill, Alexandra, and Inner City areas are remotely controlled by the City Power Control Room during load shedding.”
She further explained that a plan is in place for the substations that have a manual system.
Mashava said the new schedule would reduce the frequency with which people are being load shed, and blocks will not get shed at the same time for the same stage on consecutive days.
“In simple terms, our customers will be on for longer than it is now, especially in lower stages.”
She said City Power is finalising plans and consultations with Eskom to ensure a smooth transition and full implementation of the new load-shedding schedule by early to mid-June.
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— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) May 25, 2023
City Power to exclude businesses and key customers from #Loadshedding.^GR pic.twitter.com/70SPcXFPgy
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