City Power has a frank conversation with Northcliff Melville Times

With load-shedding in Ward 88 being top of the list for residents presently, the publication asked City Power for an overview of problems and issues the entity is facing.

The Roosevelt substation in particular affects the power supply to surrounding wards too, causing widespread frustration and anger from residents.

Below is how the conversation went with spokesperson Isaac Mangena to give detailed answers to questions residents and ward councillors alike are asking.

Is the Roosevelt substation affected more than others when it comes to trips or failures after load-shedding?

Roosevelt substation has been subject to frequent post-load-shedding trips. Between May 1 and the start of June, we recorded 19 trips from that substation. It is important to contextualise the nature of these trips though. They are not all triggered by overcurrent when electricity is restored by Eskom. Some are a result of equipment damage that occurs when the power supply gets restored after load-shedding. We have also had nine cases of multiple cable faults during this period, which occurred after load-shedding trips. While these trips have been occurring more often, the Roosevelt substation is certainly not an exception. The North Riding, Paul Kruger switching station and Delta substations have experienced virtually the same number of trips.

It is important to note, however, that since we introduced the new load-shedding schedule and started gradually bringing plants that were out of service back into operation, we have seen the frequency of those trips reduce. From 96 offline plants, we have managed to return close to 20 back into service. This will go a long way toward addressing these trips, particularly in Roosevelt.

Considering the substation was refurbished recently, who is to blame for it not being able to handle load-shedding?

Roosevelt substation is indeed a fairly new facility armed with state-of-the-art equipment. The majority of the faults that trigger trips often occur along our distributors and ageing network lines, not necessarily within the substation.

If Eskom is largely to blame, why hasn’t City Power taken legal or other action against Eskom when people’s lives and livelihoods are being so badly affected by load-shedding?

City Power, along with other municipalities, joined Eskom and the national government through Nersa, the energy regulator, to develop a standard called NSR 048 Part 9 which guides all involved with the electricity distribution in the country to follow.

The sole purpose of the standard is to protect against grid collapse, with Eskom’s system controller given powers to do everything possible to protect the grid from total collapse. With that in mind, load-shedding is then implemented as a last resort to protect the grid.

As City Power, we are working in conjunction with Eskom and other key role players to help address power supply challenges in the city of Johannesburg and the province at large. Last month on May 26, we met with the Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramakgopa who commended our efforts towards resolving the country’s energy crisis. It’s true that Eskom’s implementation of load-shedding is causing damage to our infrastructure, however, given the magnitude of the crisis we are facing, it’s more important to work together than be held up in a lengthy litigation process, which will worsen the situation for our customers.

What message do you have for residents who want to hold councillors responsible for not being proactive and helping them battle against outages and load-shedding?

We understand customers’ frustrations during this challenging period but we urge residents to work with their councillors and not against them. For the City to overcome the power supply challenges, we will need the cooperation of residents (customers), councillors, civil society, and religious and traditional formations to all help and pull in the same direction.

While the bulk of the challenges has to do with City Power’s ageing infrastructure, theft, and vandalism among others, we believe that a slight change in consumer behaviour could go a long way in addressing supply challenges. That’s why we need an even stronger bond between customers and councillors. Councillors are public representatives elected to represent the residents but are unable to instruct City entities or demand action be taken.

What are your thoughts on residents who are now beginning to protest in Ward 88 over a lack of service delivery?

We truly regret that residents have had to resort to protest actions in various parts of the city, bemoaning frequent power interruptions. We urge customers to refrain from violence as this would only lengthen some of the outages. Our teams would not be able to operate in environments that are deemed volatile – for their safety sake.

We wish to assure customers that our 10-point plan that we are implementing in the short and long term will improve the quality of the power supply. These solutions which involve energy alternatives to cushion the residents from the impact of load-shedding include:

• The onboarding of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) – both in the short and long term
• The installation of rooftop solar systems, ripple relays, and load-limiting systems
• Investment in energy efficiency and energy management systems, solar high mast and geysers
• The recommissioning of open-cycle gas turbines.

Residents will start to see some improvements as more resources are brought into our service delivery centres, resulting in the relaxation of load-shedding to lower stages. This will go a long way in affording us time to deal with the backlogs, do maintenance, and reduce the plants out of service.

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