Eskom Implements Load Reduction Due to Energy Theft Concerns

Picture courtesy: (The witness) Eskom Implements Load Reduction after 103 days without load shedding due to theft concerns.

(The Post News)- Eskom is lowering the load, blaming issues like electricity theft and the spike in demand for power during the cold snap.

Although load-shedding has been banned for 103 days running since there is enough generation capacity to power the nation, the utility said that network overloading has returned during the winter.

Load reduction has begun in places where the arrival of winter has caused local systems to become overburdened.

The utility emphasised that a load decrease does not equate to load shedding because there is still enough capacity available. On the other hand, localised blowouts might result from overloaded equipment, such as transformers, which is why they must be avoided.

On Tuesday, Eskom said that it is going back to load-reduction power outages to protect human life as a result of electricity theft.

The utility highlighted that, despite the extreme cold that has caused temperature readings to drop below freezing throughout parts of South Africa, the power outages do not constitute load shedding because the firm has the generation capacity to fulfil demand.

The power utility also stated that various forms of energy theft exist, including purchasing electricity from unlicensed vendors, vandalism, meter bypassing and tampering, illicit connections, and theft of network equipment.

The Eskom supply areas in Limpopo, the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, and the North West are affected by this problem.

Due to energy theft and careless consumption, these localities contribute to approximately 94% of all overloaded transformers.

To save its assets against frequent failures and explosions that endanger human life, Eskom is forced to undertake load reduction despite ongoing public awareness campaigns to customers about the ramifications of energy theft activities.

Monde Bala, group executive for distribution said, “We only implement load reduction as a very last resort for the shortest periods after all other options have been exhausted.”

Overloaded transformers and power theft pose a major risk to human life.