Dolphin Coast home owners will soon be getting receivers installed on their geysers to help the KwaDukuza Municipality (KDM) manage the electricity demand during evening peak hours.
At a press conference called by KDM and Eskom last Friday, mayor Ricardo Mthembu announced that the second phase of installing geyser control devices (called relays or receivers) will begin this month and finish in July 2015.
“The receivers will make it possible for us to switch the geysers off and on remotely for two hours, from 6 to 8pm every evening. This is part of our residential load management (RLM) programme in partnership with Eskom,” said Mthembu.
Phase one of RLM ran in 2009 and 8000 receivers were installed around KDM. This time 3500 will be installed at no cost to home owners.
“Geysers account for between 30 to 50% of the electricity consumption in a household and this makes them an ideal starting point for electricity demand management in the residential sector,” said Mthembu.
Eskom’s integrated demand management manager, Sibusiso Tshabalala said the geysers will be grouped in hundreds to prevent tripping and would be switched on and off at 15 minute intervals.
“The receiver will be installed next to your distribution board and if there is a power outage it will turn itself on after eight hours and start functioning normally again,” said Tshabalala.
KDM’s electrical engineer, Nick Hall said during the first phase of RLM there were a lot of misconceptions about the receivers.
“The receiver does not save you power so having it installed is not going to affect your electricity bill at the end of the month. What it does is to manage the demand during peak hours and hopefully prevent stress on the grid,” said Hall.
He urged plumbers and electricians not to bypass the receiver when working on residential geysers as that defeated the whole purpose of its installation.
The areas that will be affected by the programme are Ballito, Tinley Manor, Sheffield Beach, Salt Rock, Shakaskraal, Umhlali, Chakas Rock, Zimbali and Fox Hill.
The mayor said he was aware that criminals might try and take advantage of the RLM programme to target residents. He urged home owners to only open their doors to technicians who display badges with KDM, Nationwide and Eskom stickers.
“Nationwide’s approved and competent technicians will only come to your home after having made an appointment with the home owner,” concluded Mthembu.
