The City of Johannesburg’s request to be exempted from load-shedding for three days following the devastating floods that affected parts of the city has been approved by Eskom. (Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The City of Johannesburg’s request to be exempted from load-shedding for three days following the devastating floods that affected parts of the city has been approved by Eskom.
In a statement, the city welcomed the decision: “The City of Johannesburg welcomes Eskom’s three-day reprieve from load-shedding in areas hardest hit by the spate of floods that have caused significant damage to power infrastructure.”
So far, Protea North, Braamfischerville and Princess informal settlement, Eldorado Park, Orange Farm, parts of Main Reef Road and Alexandra have been identified as the worst-affected areas.
“City Power will, together with Eskom, use their discretion to decide on the areas that may be under pressure with maintenance and repair backlogs to be given some reprieve from load-shedding.”
Eskom in a statement said it would grant City Power some reprieve from load-shedding in areas that experienced a significant loss of electricity in large parts of Johannesburg.
A break for areas affected by flooding
“The reprieve follows the utility’s request for areas that were severely affected by recent floods and storms, which resulted in the loss of electricity, to be excluded from load-shedding.
“Through collaboration between the two entities and in accordance with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa regulations, Eskom was able to assist the city during this period.”
On Thursday, Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse said load-shedding further compounded the city’s challenges with maintenance and repairs of infrastructure that has been severely damaged by the floods.
“There are approximately 5 000 outstanding calls logged post the flooding, which will need to be attended to, fixed and cleared over the next 72-hours of reprieve.”
Echoing Phalatse’s statement, environment and infrastructure services MMC Michael Sun said the approval is critical in the city’s efforts to be able to deal with the emergency caused by the heavy rains.
“The focused exemption from load-shedding for the affected areas will enable City Power to swiftly restore electricity supply to households and businesses,” he said.
Increasing problems
Early this week, the City of Johannesburg pleaded with Eskom to exempt it from load-shedding as it deals with torrential rains. Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse submitted the urgent request to Eskom, as City Power struggles to clear the increasing backlog.
Sun said the city had made progress but that because of continuous rainfall, additional faults were being logged every hour and it was battling to keep the system going.
“Given the urgent need for City Power to attend to the widespread and escalating faults, the entity has expressed its concern that load-shedding is not only causing additional faults and stress on the network, but is also preventing the entity from being able to effectively attend to the outages and to stabilise the situation,” Sun said in a statement.
An exemption was granted to KwaZulu-Natal after April’s devastating floods hit the province. eThekwini is exempt from load-shedding unless it reaches stage four.