Eskom will now directly loadshed the City of Ekurhuleni customers in all the substations that were previously handed over to the municipality to manage.
Eskom said Ekurhuleni has failed to comply by not adhering to the NRS 048-9:2019 code of practice, which requires electricity distributor licence holders to reduce load during a declaration of a system emergency.
“The decision to take over loadshedding in Ekurhuleni follows monitoring and analysis conducted by Eskom, which indicate that the city is not reducing the load as per IRS 048-9:2019,” said Eskom.
“Eskom has on numerous occasions engaged the municipality regarding its failure to loadshed its customers.
“The power utility has taken over this role of loadshedding the City of Ekurhuleni’s customers following its contravention of the requirements of the standard in the past.
“At the time, it was only permitted to loadshed all the substations that feed critical loads.”
Subsequently, upon the city’s request, Eskom handed over the implementation of loadshedding of all the city’s customers to the municipality.
Although Eskom notes the city’s technical challenges in executing loadshedding, it is left with no choice but to implement loadshedding for the city, as non-compliance puts further strain on the already constrained national grid.
“Failure to implement loadshedding by municipalities affects the integrity and stability of the grid, which may lead to higher stages of loadshedding.
“Residential and industrial customers from the City of Ekurhuleni are urged to contact the municipality directly for the city’s loadshedding schedule or to visit their website on www.ekurhuleni.gov.za, as Eskom uses the city’s schedule.”
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