Sparks fly at load shedding schedule meeting

ANGRY residents voiced their dissatisfaction and frustration at senior electricity officials from the municipality during a public meeting in La Lucia last Wednesday. Residents were fired up over the new load shedding schedule, with many, particularly in block 3, saying it was ‘unfair’ and that they were without electricity as often as six nights a week.

Residents pointed out that suburbs such as Durban North were never shed during the evenings and demanded the municipality devise a fairer schedule.

However, eThekwini Municipality’s senior electricity officials, Deena Govender, Roy Wienand and Vijay Bathoi, who addressed a crowd of around 40 residents, said when the new schedule was proposed, the municipality felt it was fair.

They explained that each block was split into three categories, with blocks 1 to 8 classified as residential; blocks 9 to 16 as commercial; and blocks 17 to 24 as industrial. However, many questioned why Durban North fell into block 18 when it was clearly residential.

The biggest cheer on the evening was when a Durban North resident, who was not being affected as badly as block 3 residents, stood up and told the officials she was here to say the new schedule was unfair.

What the city said: Load shedding will continue

ROY Wienand, an engineer in the electricity department, explained that the city had a fixed quota of 80 megawatts a month and the only time they could make the fixed sum was to shed during peak hours.

“It is true that block 3 is being load shedd disproportionately. However, when we envisaged the new schedule, we never anticipated the way Eskom would load shed. The reason we changed the schedule was in 2008, when we had rolling blackouts: we did not take the decision to protect businesses. We were then inundated complaints from businesses, saying we are killing their industries, with some businesses needing almost 24 hours to power back up.

“The new schedule was designed specifically to protect businesses. The reason Durban North is not as hard-hit is because it is fed by a substation in Parkhill, which is classified as industrial,” he said.

One resident asked how an area the size of Durban North (block 18), which was than on a map shown in the meeting, was shed less than block 3, which was smaller.

“The geographical size of the area doesn’t change how an area is shed. I cannot promise to change the schedule, but we will keep monitoring the situation,” said Wienand.

A follow-up meeting is scheduled for the end of July with the city expected to give feedback on its findings on the issues raised at the meeting.

What Eskom says: Pay more to avoid blackouts

HOWEVER, the city’s approach to load shedding may be significantly altered because of Eskom. The ailing power parastatal has again asked for a price increase from he National Energy Regulator (NERSA).

Acting CEO of Eskom, Brain Molefe, said the utility needed an additional R15-billion in revenue through a tariff hike this year or SA would pay a much higher price in terms of forced outages, which would cost the economy more.

Molefe cloaked Eskom in positive terms, saying it supplied 96 per cent of the country with electricity 96 per cent of the time.