Load-shedding has disastrous effects on City Power infrastructure
JOBURG – City Power is working hard to minimise the challenges of load-shedding according to MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Nico de Jager.
MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Nico de Jager has assured Joburg residents that City Power is working hard to ensure the minimal impact of load-shedding.
The MMC said the biggest problem for City Power is that it depends on Eskom for power supply.
“The City Power’s operational staff are overstretched and always on standby to deal with the restoration of power and after-effects of load-shedding, as seen during this week,” said De Jager.
He added that the City inherited an infrastructure that was not regularly maintained.
“Rebooting the power grids is to the detriment of already aged infrastructure and will lead to a failure risk of said infrastructure. The reality is that we have inherited infrastructure that was not regularly maintained, with the backlog standing at R170 billion.
“This means that whenever it rains, and restorations occur after load-shedding, the power system gets weakened and the depots are inundated with power outage reports.”
The country has months struggled with load-shedding in recent which has had a negative impact on the economy. Eskom implemented Stage 4 load-shedding on 16 March due to the loss of capacity which included imports from Mozambique when a transmission that supplies power to Eskom was damaged by the Cyclone Idai.
De Jager said, “The harsh reality is that Eskom, likely due to poor planning, cannot provide answers as to how long load-shedding is going to last. Any utility is required to constantly plan ahead and put contingency measures in place to ensure that current and future loads buoyed by economic growth are catered for.”
He added that City Power has invested heavily to ensure that the problems of regular outages and unnecessary trips are avoided or completely eliminated.
“The City is working hard to ensure that our resources are ready and available to address any challenges brought by load-shedding. Budgets have been allocated to ensure we address the maintenance backlog and we refurbish and build new bulk infrastructure.”
Related article:
https://midrandreporter.co.za/209193/government-calls-donation-help-mozambique-hit-cyclone-idai/
https://midrandreporter.co.za/209158/eskom-continues-stage-4-load-shedding/
