Rotational load-shedding: No good news for residents

Residents of Parys will have to endure daily rotational municipal load-shedding, with no answers as to when this will come to an end.

Eskom today (Thursday 25 June) confirmed that the Ngwathe Local Municipality has resubmitted an application  to increase the amount of electricity, supplied to them in terms of the Municipality’s agreement with Eskom, also known as the Notified Maximum Demand (NMD)

Though, Eskom said in their statement that increase is not automatically granted as there are conditions that must be accepted by defaulting municipalities.

“Until such time that the application has been granted, residents will have to endure the rotational load reduction, which is currently applied by the municipality on a daily basis.”

On Monday, 22 June, Ngwathe Local Municipality and Eskom had a second engagement on the NMD  (contracted amount of electricity that Eskom reserves for supplying a customer in the Electricity Supply Agreement (ESA) between the two parties).  In terms of this agreement, Eskom is contractually obliged to provide 21 MVA to Ngwathe Local Municipality.

On 25 May 2020 the Municipality exceeded its contracted NMD and Eskom then subsequently applied NMD limitation in order to keep the amount within the contracted agreement.

According to the Municipality, a major contributor to NMD exceedance is meter tampering and/or illegal connections.  As a result of these illegal activities, the Municipality is unable to recover income and pay Eskom for services rendered with paying customers that are now  impacted.

In terms of the NMD limitation, the Municipality is  informed when the NMD reaches 90% of its load in order for the Municipality to apply load reduction.  If the Municipality does not respond by reducing its demand, Eskom is forced to open its supply breaker, resulting in interruption of supply to the Municipality.

Eskom said that NMD limiting is a necessity to ensure that essential equipment is not stressed which can lead to damage and failure when design limits are exceeded.  “Ultimately, NMD limiting is implemented to ensure the integrity of the system and protection of the community in which the equipment is hosted.”