City Power Johannesburg has updated its load shedding schedule, following a technical glitch. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng/ Independent Newspapers
City Power Johannesburg has updated its load shedding schedule after the massive outcry from residents over the measly two-hour gap between planned outages.
City Power Joburg took over the mass planned outages from Eskom recently.
However, residents and business owners lambasted the city entity following changes in the load shedding schedules that resulted in frequent two-hour load shedding squeezed into a six to eight hour period during the lower stages of load shedding.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena issued a statement on Thursday morning informing customers that they have since addressed the issue and updated the schedules overnight.
“This means that some of the areas may have moved to new blocks,” Mangena said.
Residents need to visit www.citypower.co.za to confirm where their block is located.
“While we have managed to fix the frequent two-hour technical glitch in the lower stages between Stage 1 and 3, please note that it may occur in some blocks when Eskom heightens the stages, as the higher the stages, the (more) frequent everybody gets load shed,” Mangena said.
“We apologise for this, and we will continue to actively work to find solutions to load shedding with the best interests of our customers in mind. Thanks for your understanding during this time.”
However, while City Power may have addressed its “technical glitch”, national power utility, Eskom announced Stage 4 load shedding until further notice. It said this was due to insufficient emergency reserves and generation capacity as a result of four units not returning to service as planned.
"Eskom will monitor the system and communicate should any significant changes occur," the entity said.
City Power said that with the updated schedules, customers will enjoy six to 14 hours of uninterrupted electricity supply in worst-case scenarios between Stages 1 and 4.
"With the new schedule, four blocks will not be shed in Stage 1 per day, with no repetition of the blocks in the same stage. In Stage 2, eight blocks will be shed twice in a day and the other eight blocks will encounter load shedding three times in the same period,“ it said.
“In Stage 3, 12 blocks will be load shed twice, while the remaining four will be off three times and in Stage 4, all blocks will be load shed three times, giving customers a minimum of six hours in between,” City Power said.
"For customers who are load shed twice in a day, they will experience 14 hours of uninterrupted power supply.“
kailene.pillay@inl.co.za
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