The City of Tshwane’s decision to implement electricity ‘load reduction’ in Soshanguve this week has sparked community backlash, especially in Jukulyn, where residents are the hardest hit by the extended power outages.
The City said load reduction in the township was implemented in and around areas supplied by Soshanguve 132/11kv substation.
Municipal spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said: “The inclement weather has resulted in an increase in consumers’ electricity demand and the available grid is unable to cope with the strain, hence the decision to embark on the reduction of energy consumption from 6pm until 10pm daily.”
The affected areas were Block V, T, W KK, SS, X, S,R, R, X-Buffer A and B, which experienced load reduction on scheduled days.
Mashigo said: “The move to implement load reduction in Soshanguve was informed by the current status of the Soshanguve 132/11kv substation which is experiencing power overload as a result of illegal connections.”
He said the municipality would soon embark on an aggressive campaign to disconnect illegal electricity connections in the area because they are the main contributing factor to the grid overload.
“Pursuant to this objective, the City implores the community to report illegal connections, so those that are behind this commission of a crime can face the full might of the law.”
He said the load reduction option has an advantage to consumers in that it prevents extended and unplanned power outages, which could last for days.
He said the electrical protection schemes are bound to trip if overloading is not managed.
Load reduction, he said, saves the City from incurring unnecessary costs which might come as a result of extensive damages to the substation.
“Due to the vulnerability of the substation, the City was faced with choices: to either leave the feeders to trip on their own, which would result in two secondary substations being off and 80% of Jukulyn losing power, or to allow the region to manage the load reduction. The only rational option under the circumstances is to manage load reduction to ensure that the grid is not compromised,” he said.
The City’s decision has, however, elicited angry reaction from many residents who took to social media to vent their anger and frustration since load reduction came into effect this week.
Residents expressed concerns that those forced to bear the brunt of load reduction were living in townships.
Other affected residents were convinced there was no difference between Eskom’s load shedding and Tshwane’s “load reduction”.
One social media user posted: “Why did you exclude Pretoria east, west and central? The DA has a problem with the people of Soshanguve, especially Jukulyn. Throughout the whole of Tshwane they only decided to implement their so-called load reduction in Jukulyn alone. Something’s not right here; this has to be looked into seriously.”
Another was worried that “this is only happening in townships … even in Atteridgeville there is no electricity. But in Pretoria east it’s business as usual”.
A resident named as JM Malola shed light on the rationale behind load reduction, saying it is “implemented in areas where there is high electricity consumption but low turnout of buying electricity and it is scheduled according to days, maybe thrice a week for 5 hours”.
Mashigo said: “Consumers are requested 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.”
Pretoria News
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