Eskom takes control of Ekurhuleni’s load shedding after metro failed to comply

Eskom has announced its now directly cutting power to City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) customers in all the substations that were previously handed over to the municipality to manage.

Failure to comply

The power utility has accused the city of failing to comply with the code of practice, which requires electricity distributor licence holders to reduce the load during a system emergency.

“The decision to take over load shedding in Ekurhuleni follows monitoring and analysis conducted by Eskom, which indicate that the CoE is not reducing the load as per NRS 048-9:2019,” the parastatal explained in a statement.

“Eskom has, on numerous occasions, engaged the municipality regarding its failure to load shed its customers.”

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The power utility has taken over this role of load shedding Ekurhuleni’s customers following its contravention of the standard’s requirements in the past.

At the time, Ekurhuleni could only cut power to all the substations that feed critical loads.

“Subsequently, upon the CoE’s request, Eskom handed over the implementation of load shedding of all the CoE customers to the municipality.”

Protect the grid

Although Eskom noted Ekurhuleni’s technical challenges in executing load shedding, it said the city’s non-compliance compromised the already constrained national grid.

It said municipalities that don’t adhere to the electricity rationing schedules impact the grid’s integrity and stability, leading to higher stages of load shedding.

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