Govan Mbeki Municipality appealed to Eskom to urgently supply more electricity to Bethal, eMzinoni and eMbalenhle
Residents from Bethal, eMzinoni and eMbalenhle have been battling with extended power outages for months, but emotions are now boiling over, especially since the national announcement that no load shedding will take place during the lockdown period. Many feel they have literally been left in the dark about the true reason why there are so many long electricity outages, other than claims of faulty cables and theft.
Their cry for urgency is the “serious potential for riots in these areas”.
Mr SF Mndebele, municipal manager, said on 8 April in a signed letter to Mr Motshabi Mokgatlha, senior manager customer services of Eskom’s distribution division in
Mpumalanga, that GMM is under severe pressure for the demand for electricity.
“This has compelled the municipality to execute intensive load sheddin, especially at Bethal, eMzinoni and eMbalenhle.”
A copy of this official letter was circulated to Bethal residents via the DA constituency WhatsApp group on Friday, 10 April.
Residents from Bethal, eMzinoni and eMbalenhle have been battling with extended power outages for months, but emotions are now boiling over, especially since the national announcement that no load shedding will take place during the lockdown period. Many feel they have literally been left in the dark about the true reason why there are so many long electricity outages, other than claims of faulty cables and theft.
Mr Mndebele, in this letter of 8 April, further motivates his plea for help by stating that “the applied intensive load shedding causes serious breakdowns in the network which aggravate the outages in these areas”.
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The Notified Maximum Demand (NMD) in the various areas of Govan Mbeki Municipality was set as an agreement between Eskom and GMM to prevent the municipality to completely drown in its ocean of debt to Eskom.
The Notified Maximum Demand (NMD) is a contractual value of demand which binds Eskom and the customer (in this case, Govan Mbeki Municipality). According to the agreement, Eskom is required to provide the contracted amount of NMD capacity, and the customer must never exceed this capacity.
In the original contract, GMM and Eskom agreed to a contracted NMD capacity of 18 720 KVA (Kilo Volt Amperes) for Bethal, 8 000KVA for eMzinoni, 12 000KVA for Evander, 34 000KVA for eMbalenhle and 7 700KVA for Kinross.
When this proved vastly too little to meet the true demand for electricity, GMM did apply to Eskom to upgrade these NMDs to 32 000KVA for Bethal, 13 000 KVA for eMzinoni, 16 000KVA for Evander, 37 000KVA for eMbalenhle and 8 000KVA for Kinross. The municipality was still awaiting approval from Eskom when the national lockdown was promulgated.
Mr Mndebele said in his letter that “Eskom must take note the municipality has already made payments to an amount of R308 159, 99 towards the commitment to receive cost estimates in this regard”.
In this letter of 8 April, GMM requests immediate assistance from Eskom to upgrade the NMD in the interim to at least 29 000KVA for Bethal, 9 000KVA for eMzinoni and 37 000KVA for eMbalenhle. This, according to the municipal manager, is in order for the municipality to survive the strain that it is currently subjected to while awaiting the process of the formal application.
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