Some areas will still fall under Eskom’s umbrella. Picture: Roodepoort Record
City Power will limit load shedding slots to two hours at a time as it takes over the management of power outages from Eskom.
This comes after the parastatal handed over load shedding operations to City Power, effective from 6 November 2023.
Currently, Eskom’s deliberate power cut slots are up to four hours.
The move follows an agreement between the two power utilities whereby the regional utility will take over load shedding operations for most of its areas of supply which were previously handled by Eskom.
Eskom Gauteng spokesperson Amanda Qithi said the undertaking will bring changes to the load shedding blocks which will affect the schedule in areas under load shedding by City Power in Johannesburg and Eskom across Gauteng.
“Areas which are load shed by City Power will remain on a two-hour schedule even during stages 5 and above of load shedding.”
Qithi said the two entities are both committed to ensuring that the security of supply is not compromised.
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However, some areas will still fall under Eskom’s umbrella.
“Due to the configuration of the network and technical complexities, City Power customers in Tshepisong, Lufhereng (Roodepoort), Hoogland, Maroeladal, Morningside, Riverclub, Dainfern, Bloubosrand, Waterford Estate, Riverbend, Kyasands, Bellairspark (Randburg), Halfway House, Halfway Gardens, Vorna Valley, Willowway (Midrand), Marlboro Transit Camp (Alexandra) will continue to be load shed by Eskom.”
Qithi added that the two entities will keep exploring technical solutions that will enable the regional power utility to take over the load shedding operations of its remaining customers.
“City Power has its processes, systems, and technical capacity in place to take over the added load shedding operations as part of the new schedule.”
She said City Power and Eskom will continue to partner and collaborate with the communities and stakeholders to ensure that electricity is delivered to all customers.
“As we know, electricity remains an essential service,” Qithi said.
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