Eskom said on Tuesday, on the coldest morning of the 2024 winter so far, that that it is resuming “load reduction” power interruptions to “protect human life as a result of electricity theft”.
The utility emphasised that the power interruptions do not amount to load shedding as the company has sufficient generation capacity to meet demand, despite the cold weather conditions which have seen temperature readings plummet below freezing across much of South Africa.
“While Eskom has suspended load shedding for 103 consecutive days due to sufficient generation capacity to supply electricity to the country, the issue of network overloading has resurfaced with the onset of winter,” the company said in a statement issued at 5.30am on Tuesday.
“This issue is prevalent in the Eskom supply areas in Limpopo, the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and North West. About 94% of the total overloaded transformers are in these areas as a result of electricity theft and indiscriminate use of electricity,” it said.
“Despite continued public information campaigns to customers about the implications of electricity theft activities, Eskom has no other option but to implement load reduction to protect its assets from repeated failures and explosions, which pose a risk to human lives.”
“Overloaded transformers as a result of electricity theft present a serious risk to human life, we only implement load reduction as a very last resort for the shortest periods possible after all other options have been exhausted,” said Monde Bala, group executive for distribution, in the statement.
‘Long-established process’
“A transformer damaged by overloading can leave an area without power for up to six months; protecting Eskom’s assets is in the best interest of all South Africans,” he said.
The utility explained that load reduction is a “long-established process that Eskom uses in specific areas when there is sufficient electricity available, but a transformer’s integrity is at risk due to overloading”. Load shedding, on the other hand, is used when the national grid is constrained and there is not sufficient capacity to generate electricity to meet demand.
“In areas where load reduction has been implemented in the past, Eskom has seen a significant reduction in equipment failure and prolonged outages.”
There are 2 111 transformers that are frequently overloaded across the country and therefore at risk of being damaged, with around 900 transformers awaiting replacement.
“Over time, Eskom has invested resources and increased capacity to meet the exponential demand in these areas prone to overloading. Despite these investments, the demand has continued to grow, rendering the situation unsustainable.”
It said that although its “aims to exclude paying customers from load reduction, the network’s configuration does not allow for dedicated supply lines to paying customers, making it impractical to service them separately”. The company urged communities to report illegal connections. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media
