Estella Naicker
Senior investigative journalist – Caxton Community Newspapers (NKZN)
How do four out of five NKZN towns avoid load-shedding?
In the Northern KwaZulu-Natal interior, however, four out of five municipalities interviewed by Caxton Local Media avoided power cuts. Newcastle Municipality is more than R200 million in debt with Eskom and, recently, had to obtain an interim High Court interdict to prevent Eskom from switching off power due to non-payment.
The court order compels this municipality to pay R30 million a month to Eskom, which doesn’t even cover its current account, let alone address its historical debt, yet the residents who receive electricity supply from this municipality have never experienced load-shedding.
On the other hand, residents who receive supply from Endumeni Municipality (Dundee and Glencoe) experienced daily power cuts, while this municipality owes Eskom nothing, having ensured that it pays its monthly account on time.
Alfred Duma Municipality (Ladysmith), AbaQulusi Municipality (Vryheid) and Inkosi Langalibalele Municipality (Estcourt) also put means in place to avoid power cuts during load-shedding.
Escourt and Vryheid have payment arrangements in place to pay off historical debt owed to Eskom, while Ladysmith, like Dundee, is up to date with its monthly account.
How are some municipalities, like Newcastle, able to protect residents from load-shedding, while others, like Dundee, implement daily power cuts? And how do Ladysmith and Dundee manage to pay Eskom on time every month, while Newcastle, Vryheid and Estcourt have amassed R300 million debt cumulatively?
Newcastle: R213 million Eskom debt, but never had load-shedding
Newcastle Municipality uses ripple relay switches to switch off geysers and streetlights when Eskom demands that load-shedding be implemented. In doing so, the municipality is able to sufficiently reduce the town’s electricity consumption, such that it is able to ‘shed’ the required ‘load’ without having to cut power.
Depending on the outcome of a High Court case on December 6, however, this municipality, where residents have never had power cuts due load-shedding, could be switched off by Eskom due to non-payment of more than R213 million debt. Despite the fact that residents within the municipality’s licensed distribution area are paying their electricity bills every month, the municipality has repeatedly failed to pay Eskom over a period of more than two years. The revenue this municipality generates from electricity supply is used to subsidise costs in other departments.
Ladysmith: Electricity revenue pays for electricity supply
Ladysmith (Alfred Duma Local Municipality) has also protected its residents from load-shedding. This municipality avoids power cuts by calling on industrial customers to reduce electricity usage by lowering production or scheduling some production for off-peak periods in order to ‘shed’ the ‘load’ required by Eskom.
Dundee: Eskom debt is R0, but residents still experience load-shedding
Endumeni Municipality (Dundee and Glencoe) does not have the ripple relay switches with which to control geysers and streetlights, nor does it have sufficient industrial consumers to call upon to reduce electricity usage when load-shedding is required. Therefore, residents are affected by daily power cuts when Eskom calls for a load to be shed.
Vryheid: R33 million Eskom debt, 1000 houses disconnected for tampering
AbaQulusi Municipality (Vryheid) uses ripple relay switches to switch off geysers and streetlights when load-shedding is required, and, in doing so, avoids the need to cut off power to its residents.
This municipality ran into Eskom debt after its bank account was attached by a property developer, in a case of land expropriation gone wrong. It currently owes Eskom about R33 million, but is no longer at risk of being switched off, as it has adhered to the payment arrangement it signed to pay off the outstanding amount.
Estcourt: Reduced Eskom debt by half, commended by Cogta
80% of consumers receiving supply from Inkosi Langalibalele (Estcourt) are industrial and commercial customers. Specialised equipment used at some factories are sensitive to electricity dips and can be damaged during power cuts.
To avoid power cuts during load-shedding, Estcourt calls on its industrial and commercial customers to reduce production, and monitors the meters at the main sub-stations to ensure that all businesses are complying.
“We do have the geyser switches, but there are only about 800 installed and most residents are trying to save electricity by switching off their geysers anyway, so it is not a viable way for us to shed the load required by Eskom,” explained head of the Electrical Department, Cyril Moodley.
“Industrial and commercial customers suffer significant losses when we have to switch off, so they are all willing to do their part to prevent power interruptions as far as possible.”
Estcourt ran into R110 million debt with Eskom after using the revenue it receives from electricity supply to subsidise costs incurred in other departments, but has paid off more than half of this amount since it entered into a payment arrangement with Eskom. It has been commended by Cogta as the best performing municipality in terms of servicing its debt.
“It is important for us to protect electricity supply as an important source of income for the municipality. We can only do this through sticking to the payment plan, increasing the collection rate from our customers and looking after the infrastructure,” concluded Mr Moodley.
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