NATIONAL NEWS - Eskom has given assurance that large power users will not incur additional costs when they overshoot their notified maximum demand due to load shedding.
In response to questions, the utility said the “actual measured and chargeable demand will be reset to a value that would have prevailed had the event giving rise to the overshoot not taken place”.
Vally Padayachee, special advisor to the Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities, however, cautions that this is not done automatically.
Power users must make sure that their bills are reviewed to avoid huge additional costs.
Those large power users not supplied directly by Eskom will have to engage their municipal distributor on the matter.
The issue relates to large power users – including residential complexes and other sectional title complexes – subjected to tariff structures that include notified maximum demand charges.
This is a charge to reserve certain agreed-upon capacity on the network for a client at all times. It is measured in kVA over a 30-minute period and the higher the capacity, the higher the charge. The client further incurs huge penalties when the agreed-upon capacity is exceeded.
According to Eric Bott, director at Energy Management Consultants, large power users take care to avoid power spikes to limit their maximum demand and thereby limit costs.
A factory for example will stagger the start-up of its machines and equipment, rather than start them up all at once in the morning when the first shift starts.
This is however not always possible when the power supply is restored after load shedding.
