Energy load reduction crisis

Update

KAROO NEWS - In an official Eskom Notification of Implementation of Load Reduction issued during the afternoon of 22 December, the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality (DBNLM) was informed of being identified as one of Eskom’s customers to be subjected to load reduction.

The mayor of the DBNLM, Cllr W Syfers, did not hesitate to inform the affected distressed residents of the area comprising eight towns. A Media Alert – Eskom Update was issued by Cllr Syfers shortly after receiving the notification from Eskom.

Whilst load reduction was unexpectedly and unannounced implemented in the DBNLM area from 13:00 on Tuesday, 21 December, miraculously no such load reduction was implemented on Wednesday, 22 December.

The load reduction on Tuesday came in addition to the scheduled nationwide load shedding.

The unannounced and unexplained added interruption of electricity supply on Tuesday properly wreaked havoc among already distressed end users.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the public demanded answers. Cllr Syfers did not disappoint in managing the crisis, hence no load reduction on Wednesday and the explanatory notification from Eskom.

According to the said Notification it appears that Eskom decided on the implementation of a Load Reduction measure in accordance with the Presidential Statement on the Energy Crisis, to ensure long term energy security and enhance the reliability of the network.

It appears that henceforth Eskom might implement Load Reduction before implementing National load shedding.

Load Reduction is a protective measure to be implemented in respect of Eskom customers identified as a customer whose demand is higher than what their supply equipment can tolerate.

In Wednesday’s Eskom Notification it was stated that the DBNLM was identified as such a customer. Implementing Load Reduction in respect of only identified customers is supposed to lighten the burden of nationwide load shedding which affects the whole country.

Although it is said that the DBNLM has Eskom debt in excess of R360 000 000.00, the Wednesday Eskom Notification did not explicitly link implementing load reduction with the outstanding debt.

In the Wednesday Media Alert Cllr Syfers stated that Eskom’s Load Reduction decision in respect of DBNLM was taken unilaterally and without consulting the municipality. According to Syfers Eskom is compelled to give the municipality the opportunity to respond before implementing Load Reduction.

The Mayor also confirmed that: “We have applied to be exempted from this due to the unique challenges we are facing”.

Whether Load Reduction will pass DBNLM indefinitely remains to be established. It is evident that Cllr Syfers tries his best to keep DBNLM residents free from this burden.

However, already in 2020 at a Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) meeting it was found that the DBNLM was “one of the Top 10 most indebted Eastern Cape municipalities owing Eskom, …” (COGTA meeting report, dd 19 August 2020, Chairperson: Mrs Faith Muthambi). Already then the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) noted that the “municipality showed no prospect of generating sufficient revenue for viability”.

Members of that meeting noted “with dismay the poor state of the municipality and identified lack of accountability and poor consequence management as largely the cause of the municipality’s extreme situation”.

Notification from Eskom