The situation in Johannesburg is bizarre and increasingly untenable.
Browsing: City Power
City Power, Johannesburg’s municipal electricity company, has walked back a claim it made at the weekend that it wasn’t imposing load shedding on residents.
As Eskom shifted from stage 1 to stage 2 to stage 4 load shedding and then back to stage 2, then stage 3 this week, the impact on Johannesburg’s City Power grid has been chaotic.
Johannesburg plans to seek at least R3.8-billion in investment in solar and gas-fired power as well as battery storage to improve electricity supply.
The City of Johannesburg plans to take over electricity distribution in part of the city from Eskom, a move that will be very costly for business, the Association of South African Chambers has warned.
City Power, Johannesburg’s municipal electricity supplier, has moved to a two-hour load-shedding schedule and announced changes to its load-shedding blocks – both implemented with immediate effect.
Eskom has firmed up a plan to implement load shedding in Johannesburg in two-hour blocks, instead of the current four-hour interruptions, with effect from 19 January.
Residents and businesses in Johannesburg may soon find load-shedding times reduced from the current four-hour blocks, to the two-hour blocks imposed elsewhere in South Africa.
City Power, which distributes electricity to large parts of Johannesburg, wants be less reliant on Eskom in light of how intermittent load shedding and the rising cost of electricity have affected it.
South Africa’s state power company intensified rolling blackouts to a record, signalling a deepening crisis at the debt-ridden utility and raising the risk of a second recession in as many years.