Load limiting to keep the lights on
ROSEBANK - A NEW and innovative system will be introduced to mitigate the impact of load shedding and help keep the lights on.
The project known as load limiting, will be rolled out to thousands of Johannesburg households that have been equipped with smart meters, from the beginning of May.
The announcement was made by Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau at a media conference at Aspen Hills Nature Estate south of Johannesburg, where the system was tested.
City Power has already installed smart meters in more than 65 000 households throughout Johannesburg over the past 18 months.
A further 150 000 households are expected to be equipped with the smart meters by the end of October this year.
The model effectively requires residents to limit their consumption of electricity when the power grid is under strain. The meters are designed to automatically trip power if consumption exceeds the limit imposed.
Explaining how the load limiting system would work, Tau said residents in households where smart meters had been installed would receive an SMS on their smartphones advising them to reduce power consumption at a particular time.
“It will be up to you to switch off those electrical appliances that you don’t need,” he said. “If you ignore the signal, your power will trip for 30 seconds and will switch on again. If you continue ignoring the warning signal, the power will switch off completely,” he said.
The power will remain switched off until the load shedding period in the particular area has lapsed.
It is estimated that City Power could save us much as 775MW if all the 335 000 households with smart meters were to apply the system.
Tau appealed to residents to make the project successful by voluntarily reducing power consumption.
“As long as communities are participants in this programme, we can begin to keep the lights on for many hours. It is a fairly simple system but it all depends on the co-operation of the residents,” he said.
For now, the system will be applied in residential properties with smart meters. City Power has already initiated talks with business leaders with a view to extending the system to the business environment.
