Johnathan Paoli
Johannesburg’s City Power announced over the weekend that it would change its load shedding schedule, following complaints from residents about prolonged power outages.
This change marks the third adjustment to the schedule since the utility assumed responsibility for the process, which aims to strike a balance between managing the city’s electricity demand by minimizing the impact of prolonged outages of up to four hours at times, on residents.
City Power took over the implementation of the rolling power cuts in the city earlier in November, and promised that power outages won’t last beyond two hours at a go.
However the move has led to a number of challenges for residents especially where electricity cuts happen on two-hourly periods during the day and nights.
The utility acknowledged the need for a revamped approach and decided to revert to Eskom’s methodology, ensuring residents experience at least four hours of load shedding during stages four, five, and six.
City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena said the revised schedule is expected to take effect from Christmas day.
“After managing to re-align the blocks and reconfigure the network, we are pleased to announce that the team is ready to roll out a new load-shedding programme from Christmas day that completely removes the 2-hour break problem in higher stages,” Mangena said.
This follows on the utility’s decision to withdraw overnight services in certain areas that have been deemed to be hotspots, following increasing attacks and crime against officials and technicians.
Mangena said the issue was deeply troubling because so many other employees have also been held at gunpoint, robbed of cell phones, laptops, and toolboxes, hijacked and injured to the point of hospitalisation, all while on duty and servicing communities across Johannesburg.
Mangena urged residents to stay informed about the updated schedule and advises on energy conservation practices during these periods and said that the utility remained dedicated to refining its strategies to ensure a more stable and reliable electricity supply for Johannesburg.
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