According to City Power spokesperson Sol Masolo, the power outages that hit some homes and businesses in Joburg were the result of a power interruption due to a technical fault.
Masolo was responding to media reports that businesses and homes along Corlett Drive and in Alexandra township were subject to power outages from 6pm to 10pm on the evening of 10 June with no notice.
TimeLive reported that businesses in Illovo claimed that City Power had been subjecting them to unannounced load shedding since 8 June.
“There was no unofficial load shedding… load shedding is predetermined and when there is load shedding we notify businesses in advance,” Masolo said.
He added that the network on which the breakdown had occurred had since been fixed and the power supply had been restored.
Last week power utility Eskom, warned that the country’s power will remain tight this winter and that any shift on the power system will result in an electricity shortage.
Meanwhile, Eskom has announced that the national power system would be under significant strain on 11 and 12 June, particularly between 5:30pm to 6:30pm, when the demand on the power grid is the greatest.
“While we continue to do all we can to avoid load shedding, the significantly constrained system means that the risk of load shedding increases,” the utility said in a power alert.
The power utility requested that consumers reduce their electricity consumption during the evening peak from 5pm to 9pm.
