Say goodbye to complete darkness during load-shedding
Say goodbye to complete darkness during load shedding. Eskom’s new residential load management project will allow you to keep essential devices running, even during power outages. With smart meters and load limiting in select areas, you can control your usage and stay connected when you need it most.
Load-shedding is a common occurrence in South Africa, especially during times of high demand for electricity. This can cause inconvenience and disruption to daily life, particularly when essential devices such as lights, television, decoder, Wi-Fi, and fridge are affected. However, Eskom has introduced a new residential load management project that aims to provide a solution to this problem. during stage 4 load-shedding.
The project involves installing smart meters and limiting load in select areas, including Beverley, Lonehill, Craigavon, Magaliessig, Dainfern Valley, Witkoppen, Fourways, and Douglasdale. These meters allow homeowners to control their electricity usage and keep essential devices running even during power outages caused by load-shedding.
Load limiting works by automatically turning off non-essential devices during high demand, such as peak hours or load-shedding. This ensures that essential devices are given priority and can continue to function, even if the power supply is limited.
The smart meters also provide homeowners with real-time information about their electricity usage, making monitoring and managing their consumption easier. This can help to reduce energy costs and promote more sustainable energy usage.
Beverley resident, Amanda Gibbs said, “At first, I was very apprehensive about the situation, it feels like Eskom is trying to control us. I did realise throughout the evening that they are trying to help their customers with this implementation of load reduction devices to assist households to still have some power and keeping the essentials like the Eskom infrastructure operational in order to still have some lights and reduce vandalism and breakages of their systems infrastructure.
“It will be an adjustment and we might not have a choice but at least they have a plan to assist and manage stage 1 – 4 load-shedding.”
Ward 94 councillor David Foley said, “In general people that cannot afford solar, inverters and so on can have lights Wi-fi, tv many more using low devices.”
Eskom’s new residential load management project provides an innovative solution to the problem of load-shedding. Allowing homeowners to keep essential devices running even during power outages helps minimize disruption and inconvenience caused by load-shedding while promoting more efficient and sustainable energy usage.
Eskom Gauteng spokesperson Amanda Qithi said, “The primary goal of residential load management is to achieve a more efficient and reliable electricity grid by managing the demand for electricity, rather than relying solely on increasing the supply.
“Customers can get involved by following and affecting the prompts that will be sent to them via the smart meter, and adjusting their energy consumption patterns to help mitigate peak demand and reduce strain on the grid.”
Related Article:
