By Phenyo Selinda
Due to the critical levels of electricity consumption, City Power, the state-owned utility fully owned by the City of Johannesburg, plans to implement power cuts starting Monday, 10 June 2024.
The aim is to protect the city’s electricity grid from a potential total collapse. These stringent load reduction measures will mainly target high-density areas and suburbs with high consumption levels.
For the load reduction strategy, the City Power authority will generally undertake measures directed to the intensification of the application of ripple relays to switch-off electricity supply to geysers during peak hours, from 6 – 10 am and 4 – 10 pm as well as step up efforts to cut download at substations with a higher rate of operation and cut down on illegal connections.
These measures are designed to reduce the immense pressure the electricity network by increasing demand for electricity, which has significantly grown. Even though there have been previous moves to educate consumers to save on energy, their consumption rates remained high therefore the need for these new measures.
According to the power utility, some areas had experienced a remarkable rise in their average evening peak load, a 65% over what had been recorded earlier. These areas reported spikes of up to 33MW by May 2024 in comparison with summer’s 25MW peak.“ There are times when consumption spikes to 42MW, which is a 110%,” City Power said, “compared to the warmer months.” Per city power, off-peak load surged from nearly 20MW hitting 30MW registering a 50% increase”.
“In our strategy to reduce the pressure on the grid by reducing demand involves the use of re-lay with rippled lines,” noted City Power. Essentially, a ripple receiver is an integral part of any load management network aimed at regulating the flow of power through a hot water unit at peak times. Hot water units are the highest electricity consumers, consuming 50% + of the total monthly finances used in households.
City Power is also suggesting that people of Johannesburg should attempt to reduce their power consumption during the time load shedding is suspended until further notice and then encourage others to consider alternative energy sources in case it is possible like Gas appliances.
Below are the areas which will be affected by load reduction:
- Freedom Park
- Alexandra
- Klipfontein
- Kliptown
- Lawley
- Matholesville
- Mayibuy
- Mountain View
- Naturena
- Pennyville Precast
- Pimville Zone 9
- Princess
- Slovo
- Thembelihle
- Tshepisong
- Vlakfontein
On June 7, 2024, Eskom released a statement addressing the recent power cuts, noting that there had been no loadshedding for 72 consecutive days. This significant achievement was attributed to improvements in power station reliability under the Generation Operational Recovery Plan. One of the key measures taken was an increase in planned maintenance during the summer of 2023–24, resulting in a notable reduction in unplanned outages.
Eskom highlighted that the current unplanned outages average 11,300 MW, which is 3,000 MW less than anticipated. They also pointed out the improvement in the Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF), which decreased to 28.0% from 35.7% compared to the previous year, indicating better fleet generation management.
Regarding maintenance, Eskom reassured that “their current planned maintenance of 4,653 MW aligns with their schedules for winter, contributing to stable power supplies.” The Energy Availability Factor (EAF) also showed positive progress, reaching 61.1% year-to-date, an 8% increase from the previous year.
Eskom underscored their strategic “use of open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), highlighting a significant cost reduction. From April 1 to June 6, 2024, Eskom spent R1.71 billion on OCGTs, generating 246.91 GWh, compared to R7.4 billion spent on generating 1,210.23 GWh during the same period last year, marking a reduction of about 77%.”
In conclusion, Eskom states its plans to bring back online 3,020 MW of generation capacity by June 10, 2024. Despite these improvements, Eskom advised citizens to avoid overloading the grid by legalising their power connections and purchases. They committed to providing updates or promptly informing of major changes on June 14, 2024, demonstrating their commitment to transparency and responsibility in their operations.
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