State-owned power utility Eskom has confirmed that it is, since July 24, directly loadshedding City of Ekurhuleni customers in all the substations that were previously handed over to the municipality.
Eskom says in a July 26 statement that the city failed to comply by not adhering to the code of practice that requires electricity distributor licence holders to reduce load during a declaration of a system emergency.
It adds that the decision to take over loadshedding in the city follows monitoring and analysis conducted by the utility, which indicated that the city was not reducing the load as per the code.
Eskom says it has engaged the municipality on several occasions regarding its failure to loadshed its customers and has taken over this role following the city’s contravention of the requirements of the standard in the past.
While Eskom acknowledges the city’s technical challenges in executing loadshedding, it says it has no choice but to implement loadshedding for the city as the non-compliance is further straining the already constrained national grid.
Residents and industrial customers of the city are urged to contact the municipality directly for the loadshedding schedule or visits its website on www.ekurhuleni.gov.za, as Eskom will use the city’s schedule.