South Africa power utility company Eskom has announced there will be load shedding in Gauteng as the company struggles with illegal connections. The Eskom issued the following statement about its intention to restrict power in Gauteng:
Eskom in Gauteng has identified areas with significantly high non-technical losses mainly in residential areas. The power utility continues to record a substantially high trend of energy demand during peak periods in the mornings and evenings between 05:00 and 09:00, and again between 17:00 and 20:00 respectively. Eskom’s immediate response is to safeguard its assets from repeated failure and explosions as a result of overloading caused by illegal connections, meter bypasses and tampering with electricity infrastructure that are on an increase.
“It is prudent for us to take deliberate measures to significantly reduce the extremely high costs associated with repeated equipment failure resulting from overloading, which costs more as the power is indiscriminately used during peak periods. This unprecedented measure is necessary to contain the situation. We deem the constant repairs and replacement of equipment that fails before we can realise their investment as unwarranted, and this will not sustain our operations should we continue in this trajectory. This is in line with our priorities of containing operational costs and improve Mant performance,. said Motlhabane Ramashi, Senior Manager, Maintenance and Operations in the Gauteng Operating Unit.
The implementation of this initiative will be effected on a rotational basis in order to curb rising costs. Eskom will continuously monitor the developments to determine any improvements. The power utility will keep conducting audits, remove illegal connections and act against meter tampering, as well as impose penalties for any transgression, while driving this initiative that is part of the multipronged strategy.
‘We .11 carry on to partner and collaborate with the affected communities and stakeholders to ensure that electricity is delivered to all customers, as we are of the view that electricity remains an essential service.
The news about load shedding in Gauteng did not go well with the residents who feel the parastatal is not doing enough. They also questioned the implementation of load shedding while industry is not working at full capacity. People expected the demand for electricity to be low during the national lockdown.
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