Eskom has handed over its loadshedding operations in Johannesburg to Joburg City Power in a bid to safeguard the integrity and stability of the national grid.
This joint partnership, kicking off in November, will see City Power managing loadshedding schedules for areas in the city previously managed by Eskom.
The new adjustments will see alterations to loadshedding schedules across the metro and Eskom’s coverage in Gauteng.
As of next next week Monday, City Power will be in charge of implementing rotational power cuts – the move will see some areas which are loadshed by City Power remain on a two-hour schedule even during stages 5 and higher.
The spokesperson for City Power Isaac Mangena said: “As City Power, we have our processes, systems and also technical capabilities in place to take over the added load shedding operations as part of the new schedule. The revised block and schedules will be available for City Power customers on the 6th of November.
“There are a few areas in Johannesburg that will remain supplied by Eskom due to technical complications.”
The transfer comes as City Power’s infrastructure has been buckling under the weight of high levels of rolling power cuts, often leaving residents in the dark for prolonged hours.
Rise in demand for electricity
In a separate incident, Mangena said City Power has noticed a worryingly sharp increase in electricity demand due to cold and wet weather conditions which started sweeping across Johannesburg and other parts of the country this past weekend.
He said this has already impacted their network, with various areas experiencing power outages caused by overcurrent and overloading. By this evening our technicians were dealing with over 2 500 outage calls across Joburg.
According to the South African Weather Services these weather conditions will continue into late Tuesday.
Mangena reassured City Power customers that measures have been put into place to offset the impact of extreme weather conditions “on our system across all the Service Delivery Centres”.
“We are however, relying heavily on responsible electricity consumption from our customers, in order to unburden the network and keep lights on,” Mangena added.
