A large part of Durbanville as seen darkened load shedding from a light aircraft flying over the Northern Suburbs. File picture: Armand Hough/Independent Newspapers
Cape Town - While those who fall in an Eskom-supplied area will be on stage 4 load shedding, those within the jurisdiction of the City of Cape Town will move between stages 2, 3 and 4.
This morning South Africans awoke to the news that Eskom will be implementing stage 4 load shedding.
In a statement released early Wednesday on X (formerly Twitter), the power utility said: “Due to insufficient emergency reserves and generation capacity as a result of four units not returning to service as planned, stage 4 load shedding was implemented this morning at 2:31 until further notice.
“Eskom will monitor the system and communicate should any significant changes occur,” the power supplier said.
The City then took to X and shared how over the next few days it would move through stages 2, 3 and 4 during the course of a day.
City customers on Wednesday, 22 November, will have stage 3 from 5am - 4pm, and thereafter stage 2 from 4pm - 10pm. Stage 4 will come into effect after 10pm until - 5am the next morning.
The same cycle will repeat for both Thursday, 23 November, and Friday, 24 November.
The City added that these updates are subject to Eskom changes.
24 November
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) November 22, 2023
Stage 3: 05:00 - 16:00
Stage 2: 16:00 - 20:00
Stage 4: 20:00 - 05:00
Updates to follow. Subject to Eskom changes.
City’s service channels (please use one channel):
SMS: 31220 (standard charges apply)
Email: power@capetown.gov.za
Online: https://t.co/bSlIz4FurR
Mayco member for energy Beverley van Reenen had previously explained that “where possible, the City has been able to protect its customers from up to two stages of load shedding primarily through the management of the Steenbras Hydro Pump Station”.
The 180-megawatt Steenbras Hydro Pump Station consists of four turbines that are used to generate electricity. During peak electricity demand, it channels water from Upper Steenbras to Lower Steenbras, through the turbine generator, to create electricity.
When electricity usage is low, usually from 11pm to 7am, the turbines pump the water back to the Upper Steenbras Dam to be reused the next day. In this way, Steenbras Hydro Pump Station operates like a battery.
The amount of electricity that it can generate in one day is limited by the capacity of the lower reservoir.
“Thus about two-thirds of the water used to generate power during the day is pumped back at night to the upper Steenbras reservoir to create more space for continual utilisation of the power station.
“It’s more like charging the cellphone battery at night for usage during the following day. Cape Town is the only city in South Africa to own and operate a large pumped hydroelectric scheme,” Van Reenen said.
Western Cape have still had to contend with load-shedding challenges due to work on Koeberg Power Station, but at the end of the month this should come to an end.
Eskom announced that its stream generators on Koeberg’s Unit 1 had been replaced successfully, but the unit was expected to be synchronised to the grid only by the end of the month.
Once the Unit 1 commissioning is complete, the three steam generators on Unit 2 are scheduled for replacement, leaving doubts about the impact in solving current load-shedding challenges.
“The replacement of the steam generators was identified in the licence application for long-term operation of Koeberg that was submitted to the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR), as being a prerequisite for the station to operate safely beyond its original licensed operating period of 40 years (beyond 2024),” Eskom said.
Meanwhile, Elsies River residents protested after having had to endure prolonged outages. Van Reenen, the City’s Subcouncil 4 leadership and community leaders, conducted an urgent meeting with Eskom on Tuesday to discuss the matter.
Eskom reports power has been restored to about 60% of the affected customers. And restoration is expected to be completed today, Wednesday, as per a statement from the power supplier.
“Last night, sadly, a small number of members of the Elsies River community protested violently and intimidated local City councillors.
“The City asks residents to please refrain from threats and intimidation against City office bearers, City staff and also Eskom teams trying to resolve the massive outage, thought to be largely caused by vandalism and theft of Eskom infrastructure. Any interference to the restoration efforts will cause delays.
“The City will continue to monitor Eskom’s progress as we understand the severe inconvenience to affected residents,” Van Reenen said.
“But we call for calm and enhanced efforts to help us all tackle the scourge of theft and vandalism of all power infrastructure across the metro.”
Elsies River was not a City-supplied area but an Eskom-supplied area, Van Reenen explained.
“Some areas in the City of Cape Town are supplied with electricity directly by Eskom and others by the City. This is not something which is determined by the City but under national legislation.
“While the City values service delivery to residents, there are limits to what the City or its representatives can achieve, as Eskom is a national entity and does not fall within the control of the City,” she said.
The supply areas are established under the National Electricity Regulation Act via the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) issued distribution licences.
The Eskom distribution licence defines the Eskom supply area within the City of Cape Town. The City's distribution licence defines the City's supply area.
Report damage to municipal electrical infrastructure via SMS to 31220 and power@capetown.gov.za; and anonymous tip-offs are welcomed at 0800 1100 77. There is a reward of R5 000 if tip-offs lead to arrests.