City of Joburg rejects Eskom’s load shedding schedule

The City of Joburg (COJ) has rejected Eskom’s scheduled stage 2 load shedding which the power utility announced on Saturday. 

“This is after the City recently secured additional power supply capacity of 220Mw from the privately-owned Kelvin Power Station that qualifies it for an exemption from stages 1 and 2 of load shedding,” said COJ. 

The City indicated that it had also written a letter to Eskom to notify it of this added capacity.

Joburg’s new executive mayor also described the planned load shedding as “an unwarranted decision that can not be left unchallenged on behalf of the people of Johannesburg.”  

“When the City first reached out to Eskom to indicate our additional supply capacity, we asked for proof int his regard, which we accordingly presented,” said Moerane in a statement. 

He added that the City did not hear back from Eskom and were just as surprised as the rest of the country to hear about the latest bout of load shedding. 

The mayor accused the power utility of having no intention of serving the people of Johannesburg, even after COJ’s attempts to assist Eskom “after the national utility claimed it had left some mini substations and transformers unrepaired for months in mostly poor communities in Johannesburg.”

The mayor concluded by indicating that the City is even willing to go the legal route in its impasse with Eskom to halt what it calls “Eskom’s blanket heavy-handedness against the people of Johannesburg.”

ALSO READ: Eskom announces stage 2 load shedding

Eskom on Saturday announced stage 2 load shedding due to a shortage of generation capacity. As such, load shedding will begin at 9pm on Saturday and continue until 5am on Monday.

“This load shedding has been caused by breakdowns, numerous trips at various power stations, as well as delays in returning units to service. This has required us to rely heavily on emergency generation reserves, which are now at very low levels,” explained the power utility in a statement. 

Eskom further explained that the implementation of stage 2 load shedding was necessary to ensure adequate reserves for the week ahead.  

“It is necessary to preserve the remaining emergency reserves and to replenish as much as possible before Monday.”

Eskom also highlighted multiple breakdowns and trips over the past week at Tutuka, Kriel, Hendrina, Kusile, Arnot and Kendal power stations.