- Eskom and City Power have agreed to work together in the national interest and to protect the national grid.
- City Power will follow and implement the directive of the System Operator, and implement loadshedding on its customers in the City of Johannesburg as required.
- The collective understanding by both entities is to protect the national power grid while reducing the impact of loadshedding.
- The announcement follows statements issued by City Power and newly elected Mayor of Johannesburg, Mr Mpho Moerane, that they will not implement loadshedding on their residents who have accounts directly with the municipality.
Eskom and City Power will continue searching for a lasting technical solution which would result in City Power customers in the City of Johannesburg being partially excluded from loadshedding.
To achieve this end City Power, the electricity company owned by the City of Johannesburg, has entered into a power purchase agreement with the Kelvin Power Station, which will enable City Power to draw additional capacity to offset the first two stages of loadshedding. Read more
After concluding the transaction, City Power wrote to Eskom few days ago requesting to be excluded from loadshedding at Stages 1 and 2. On the weekend, City Power announce that it would not be implimenting load shedding because it believed a new deal with a private power station should supply enough additional electricity to shield it from Stage 2 load shedding.
Eskom implimented nationwide rotational Stage 2 load shedding this past Friday. City Power announced in a press statement this morning that it has subsequently agreed to load shedding “to save the national grid from total collapse”.
Technical teams from both Eskom and City Power will continue to consider the technical aspects of the Kelvin Power Station and verify the additional capacity that can be added to the national grid. The teams will also explore technical possibilities that may see City of Johannesburg partially shielded from loadshedding in future.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
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