By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
City of Tshwane says its substation in the Soshanguve is experiencing a power overload as a result it will continue to implement load reduction on Monday, 17 June.
The metro says its substation in the area is experiencing a power overload as a result of the drastic increase in electricity consumption.
Inclement weather and illegal connections have also piled on the pressure.
City of Tshwane Spokesperson, Lindela Mashigo, says load reduction in Soshanguve will be implemented between 6 and 10 o’clock every evening from Monday until Sunday.
“Consumers are reminded to always switch off non-essential appliances and alternate the use of high consumption appliances (geysers, kettles, stoves and heaters) to reduce the prospect of overloading the electricity system. Furthermore, consumers are urged to reduce consumption for the city to ensure a continuous supply of electricity.”
Energy expert Chris Yelland previously explained that load-shedding and load-reduction are distinct concepts with different purposes.
Load-shedding is a solution to what is primarily a generation problem that occurs when Eskom’s generation capacity fails to meet electricity demand.
Yelland said, on the other hand, load reduction is one solution to a distribution problem that occurs when the distribution network is overloaded.
He added that to prevent transformers from overheating and catching fire, electricity is switched off during peak hours to reduce the load.
He said overloading is caused by urbanisation, illegal electricity connections, high electricity demand and the metro not upgrading infrastructure and plants.
South Africa has been without load shedding for 79 days, but Eskom warned it’s still too early to declare that the country is completely without it.
Meanwhile Eskom will over the next 36 months pursue its strategy across several key initiatives to increasing of the Energy Availability Factor to 70% in the next 12 to 36 months and returning more than 2.5GW in capacity to the grid by March 2025, among others.