• The City of Cape Town has been building reserves in an effort to help reduce the impact of higher stages of Eskom’s load-shedding. Should Eskom move to higher stages of load-shedding as has just been warned, the City will mitigate the impact as much as possible by using its reserves, primarily garnered via the use of the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme. With the warning of Stage 6 load-shedding, it is imperative that we all work together.
• Between January and May 2022, the City protected its customers through the use of the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme with one stage of load-shedding amounting to approximately 514 hours or 21 days of protection from load-shedding.
• The City continues to put in place measures to protect its operations and service delivery from the impacts of Eskom’s load-shedding as far as possible.
• Households and businesses are encouraged to plan ahead especially as it pertains to the current higher stages of load-shedding.
‘As a City, we will do all we can to help our residents, protect service delivery and infrastructure and keep our network stable. Needless to say, Stage 6 load-shedding will have a profound impact on Cape Town and we are working to make sure the impact is reduced as far as possible by offering some protection from the higher stages of load-shedding.
‘This just underscores how necessary it is for Cape Town to move on our own to end load-shedding and reduce our reliance on Eskom power as quickly as we can. Much work is already under way with this goal in mind – in the City’s own build, small-scale embedded generation, wheeling and independent power producer programmes. In fact, the bid process for Independent Power Producers closed yesterday. In the meantime, we are doing everything in our power to assist our customers and we thank them for their support,’ said Executive Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.
Flatten the peak use!
‘Eskom’s load-shedding typically happens at short notice and it is done to prevent a total collapse of the national power system, known as a blackout.
‘The City always tries its very best to protect its customers. This is evident by looking at the data: Between January and May 2022, the City protected its customers through the use of the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme with one stage of load-shedding amounting to approximately 514 hours or 21 days of protection. Currently, the City has not offered much protection as it has worked to make sure there are reserves in place to stabilise the power grid for our customers should Eskom advise that we are heading into higher stages of load-shedding.
‘Customers can help by reducing power usage especially in the evening and mornings – flatten the peak by delaying the use of electrical appliances to non-peak times and switching off non-essential electrical appliances. Geysers use the bulk of household energy and reducing the temperature of the geyser to 60 degrees Celsius or making sure the geyser is on a timer and only active for an hour or two per day is a crucial step to reducing energy usage and making sure we are able to build some reserves,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Councillor Beverley van Reenen.
Source: City Of Cape Town