PRESSURE by City authorities has resulted in uMhlathuze’s load shedding quota being revised by Eskom, easing the burden on local consumers.
Until confirmation of the reduced load from the power utility, residents and businesses in the City will only be affected by stage 1 load shedding comprising two to two-and-a-half hours.
This follows intense negotiations between the City’s electrical department and Eskom last week.
According to Chief Technical Officer: Customer Management for Electricity Supply, Adri Smit, the City requested that the municipal load demand be reduced by removing large industry consumers which already had national agreements with Eskom, from the City’s grid.
‘The revised quota will be less than what we previously had and after confirmation from Eskom, we will revisit the City’s load shedding schedule,’ said Smit.
‘We informed Eskom that customers were taking a hammering for the high load demand within uMhlathuze, which included industry.
‘The City has no control over large industrial users, which is load shed directly from Eskom. In the interim, only stage 1 will be applied throughout the City.’
On Sunday, despite notification for stage 2 load shedding (four to four-and-a-half hours), the City only cut power for two-and-a-half hours.
The revised quota could mean that consumers would only face load shedding every two weeks.
‘We are looking at the existing schedule and will revisit it after confirmation of the reduced quota percentage so that the load is balanced over a 14-day schedule.’
Minimise
uMhlathuze Municipal Manager Dr NJ Sibeko said the City was trying its utmost best to minimise the inconvenience of load shedding to consumers.
‘No one likes load shedding, so we will do whatever we can to reduce the inconvenience to consumers while still being able to comply with Eskom’s quota,’ Sibeko told the Zululand Observer on Friday.
The municipality is also looking at priority maintenance issues associated with load shedding and the implementation of a revised load shedding schedule.
When Eskom faces power grid constraints, large industry in the City is approached first to reduce their demand.
BHP Billiton last week was on record as saying that they shut down for two hours per potline per week upon request by Eskom.
uMhlathuze load shedding schedule HERE
