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The Democratic Alliance in Gauteng has criticised Johannesburg City Power for implementing load reduction in winter.
The Democratic Alliance calls on the City of Johannesburg’s executive to be transparent with residents about what day-to-day maintenance has been done to reduce the number of out-of-service substations City Power started implementing load reduction on Monday, 11 June, saying its system was overloaded.
DA councillor in the City of Joburg, Nicolee van Dy, said winter is in full force, causing temperatures to plummet and increasing the use of heaters and geysers. She said most people understand that this leads to higher power consumption, putting additional demand on the network. However, before the end of load-shedding nearly three months ago, City Power noted that one of the most significant revenue losses was due to many middle- to upper-income earners and some large power users going off-grid, costing the city much-needed income. “In September 2023, City Power announced that the grid was on the verge of collapse due to intense load-shedding and a lack of maintenance, leaving the city’s network in a precarious state. The city has now been free from load-shedding for 74 days, providing ample time for City Power to initiate a maintenance program on the network. “According to City Power, the network had long suffered from the constant cycling of load-shedding combined with the damage caused by in-rush current,” she said. Van Dyk said residents are now paying 12.72% more for power in Joburg but are being asked to consume less. At the same time, many felt relief at the possibility of a first winter in years without load-shedding from Eskom; now they are hit by City Power’s “load reduction”. “The DA calls on the executive of the City of Joburg to be transparent with residents about what day-to-day maintenance has been done to reduce the number of out-of-service substations. Transparency is key to rebuilding trust and ensuring residents understand where their increased payments are going. “We call for immediate action to recover the significant amounts owed by provincial and national government departments to City Power. This money is critical for improving the power infrastructure and should not be neglected.”
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