Salt Rock and Sheffield Beach residents always seem to be in the dark after load shedding.
As soon as the power returns after load shedding, this area in particular are regularly without power for another hour or more, especially for the 4pm to 6pm or 6pm to 8pm load shedding slots.
This is not evil Eskom punishing residents, but is in fact caused by the startup demand from geysers exceeding capacity from the Chakas Rock substation immediately after the power is restored.
Richard Evert from Eskom and a resident of Sheffield Beach said that the constraint in the network has been exposed by load shedding.
“The overload conditions are due to a simultaneous operation of many geysers during the evening demand of ablutions and meal preparations. It has also been experienced once so far in an early morning slot,” said Evert.
“When you use hot water, cold water flows into the geyser reducing the overall temperature in the geyser and the thermostat operates to switch power to the heating filament on.”
Whether your geyser is switched on or off, as soon as you open the warm water tap, the thermostat in your geyser will switch on when the temperature drops below a certain point.
Evert said the interim solution will be assistance from the community.
How residents can help
1. “Residents in Salt Rock and Sheffield should try to complete their evening responsibilities an hour before load shedding is implemented and not use hot water during the outage,” said Evert.
Your geyser’s insulation is sufficient to maintain water temperature and prevent your geyser’s thermostat from trying to switch power on, thus reducing the starting load on the substation when load shedding stops and power is restored to the community.
2. “As it’s not always possible, if you absolutely have to use hot water during load shedding, switch off your geyser and only switch it back on an hour after your power is restored,” said Evert.
“Find your electrical board or distribution board (DB) and familiarise yourself with the switch for the geyser.”
New substation
Evert said there is a long term municipality solution to the challenge with the new Sheffield substation that will be completed by December 2015 / January 2016.
“It’s a new supply and the substation construction is virtually complete with power line servitudes being commissioned.”
“It’s time we help the municipality to help us, if we cannot, we as residents will continue to have extended outages after the load shedding as it is our load causing the extended outages,” said Evert.
Residents in the area are urged to assist with this matter and for more information can join the Salt Rock community forum by contacting Cobus Oelofse on 071 519 2585.
Send him an sms with your name, cell number and street name.
Read a full, detailed article in next week’s Courier.
