Durban — The eThekwini Municipality’s electricity department has introduced a new load shedding schedule which will come into effect on May 25, 2023.
This was according to communications head Lindiwe Khuzwayo.
“EThekwini municipality can confirm that following discussions with Eskom, the City’s load shedding schedule is being revised, and a new schedule will be effective from May 25,” Khuzwayo said on Tuesday.
Khuzwayo said eThekwini has been on a reduced level of load shedding since the April 2022 floods owing to the negative impact of the floods on the City’s electrical network.
“While the City’s infrastructure is not yet repaired to pre-flood levels, the City acknowledges the country’s need to reduce the load to protect the national grid,” the Khuzwayo said.
“It has therefore become unavoidable for eThekwini to revert to normal load shedding stages as experienced by the rest of the country.”
Khuzwayo said that some areas continue to battle with the damage from the floods and as a result, there are certain substations that cannot be switched off as that would pose a significant risk to residents and infrastructure.
“The City is finalising the amended load shedding schedule and this will be shared with the public as soon as it is ready,” Khuzwayo said.
She said that suburban block allocations have been amended to accommodate the required changes.
“Customers are urged to check their suburbs against their new block numbers when the schedule is published,” Khuzwayo said.
She also said that areas with a large industrial component have been allocated to Blocks 17 to 20 and will be shut off from Stage 7 upwards for a duration of four hours at a time. This is expected to limit the impact of load shedding on production.
“Customers are urged to minimise their electricity usage. Customers are also urged to switch off high-load appliances during power outages to prevent high waiting loads when the power does return. This will prevent extended outages,” Khuzwayo said.
In July last year, the municipality said the City will be load shed from August after it was “exempt” from blackouts.
eThekwini prepared a temporary schedule that will be effective for stages 4 and higher.
At the time, eThekwini electricity head Maxwell Mthembu said the municipality was not exempted from load shedding but due to the significant damage to infrastructure, the city wrote a letter to Eskom and a decision was taken to leave eThekwini out of load shedding.
The DA in eThekwini had said that it does not believe that any load shedding should go ahead until such time as the report is tabled and confirmation is received that eThekwini’s infrastructure is stable enough to support frequent power cuts.
The party said that load shedding alone damages infrastructure. To load shed infrastructure that might still be unstable would cause even worse damage, which the municipality will not be able to control.
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