If you missed it: Eskom’s plan to power on
SANDTON – Eskom assures members of the public that they are doing everything possible to keep the lights on this winter and ensure minimal disruption in electricity provisions.
Eskom assures the public that they are doing everything possible to keep the lights on this winter and to ensure minimal disruption in electricity provisions.
They have outlined a customer-centric winter plan for Sandton aimed at implementing preventative measures for unanticipated equipment and network delivery failures that interrupt power supply.
Eskom customer service manager KK Masisi said, “The winter plan has already been activated so that our networks are able to cope with extreme weather conditions and increased electricity demand, as well as respond to, and restore, network faults timeously.”
Potential winter disaster scenarios that Eskom is prepared to address include major system constraints caused by township networks overloading, due to cold weather, and illegal connections and social unrest. To combat these challenges, Eskom has committed to implementing township network upgrades and conversions from conventional to prepaid meters.
“Without the partnership of communities, we will fail at the end of the day.”
He urged the community to report illegal connections to 086 003 7566 and partner with Eskom to eradicate safety-related incidents and fatalities as a result of illegal connections, meter bypasses and other forms of tampering with electricity infrastructure.
He mentioned that Eskom has removed a number of illegal connections only to find that they have been reinstalled a few days later by community members. He said they have planned 49 educational campaigns in Sandton this year, but if the community do not attend these events, they would be fruitless.
Customer relations officer Mashudu Sikhala said, “We want the community to take ownership of their network and see it as their asset. They must report vandalism to officials so that they can have a continuous electricity supply. We rely on customers to monitor and report issues to us.”
One of the challenges facing Sandton is meter bypassing and old meters. Since March last year, Eskom has been implementing a Smart Metering Project where old meters are replaced by smart split meters. According to Sikhala, more than 29 000 meters have already been replaced and the remaining 4000 will be completed by the end of this month.
Eskom is intensifying the installation of split meters across the province to put customers in control of managing their consumption and reducing electricity expenditure in the tough economic climate.
According to Masisi, Eskom is committed to:
- Conducting daily patrols in cable theft hotspots
- The upgrade of transformers and bundle contractors within known constrained networks
- Fast-tracking critical strengthening capital projects
- The removal of illegal connections
- Intensifying customer communications
- Increasing their capacity at the control centre.
