New load-shedding rules imminent

With load-shedding a permanent fixture in South Africans’ lives for the foreseeable future, the country is set to receive new rules governing its implementation.

This is according to MyBroadband, which published feedback from questions posed to Nersa, the national energy regulator.

The new rules are expected to be finalised by the end of March.

Nersa published its draft third edition of NRS 048-9 Electricity Supply – Quality of Supply: Code of Practice – Load reduction practices, system restoration practices, and critical load and essential load requirements under system emergencies in August.

This document details the standard used by Eskom’s system operator in instructing electricity distributors to implement load-shedding.

The main takeaway is that the new document defines load-shedding up to stage 16, whereas the current rules define only up to stage 8.

Nersa emphasised that the new rules did not mean South Africans would experience higher stages of load-shedding, but are meant to ‘holistically guide the system operator for all possibilities’.

“It is not necessarily based on the current or expected load-shedding levels, which are a result of supply not matching demand,” said Nersa.

“Moreover, it does not necessarily mean that load-shedding is expected to become more intense or severe.”

Draft 2 of the latest document was reportedly available for public comment for several months last year, and Nersa received just 11 submissions from members of the public.

No public hearing was held as there was reportedly no request from stakeholders for the energy regulator to do so.

“Nersa is currently analysing comments and envisages that the consideration of the submission to the energy regulator and subsequent announcement of its decision will be done by the end of the fiscal year, 31 March 2024,” the energy regulator told MyBroadband.

The date from which the updated regulations are to be implemented will be announced once Nersa has concluded its internal processes.

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