Court tells Eskom to keep firm plugged in
Tania Broughton
April 18 2008 at 08:37AM
In what is believed to be the first court challenge to power cuts, and which could impact on the Durban's ability to cut electricity supply in industrial areas, a Durban manufacturing plant has scored a temporary four-day reprieve from the blackouts.
Should Durban High Court Judge Jan Hugo rule finally in favour of Feltex Holdings (trading as Hosaf) in its attempt to stop the eThekwini Municipality from switching off its power three times a week, it could open the floodgates to court applications from other industries in the city.
Feltex launched its urgent application at 2pm on Thursday - with only four hours to go before the power at its resin manufacturing plant in Jacobs was due to go off.
Evidence before the court was that the plant was designed to run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, manufacturing polyester fibres used for plastic bottles.
The R1-billion plant, which employs 270 people, operates at a temperature of 270°C and under pressure of 300 bar. It was not designed to be switched off and, because the power demands were abnormal, the company had a separate agreement with the municipality.
Company chairman Paul Schouten said in his affidavit that should the power be cut, it would take 22 hours for the plant to boot up to full operating capacity once electricity was restored.
He said according to the schedule, the plant would be subjected to power cuts every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
"Bearing in mind it takes 22 hours to resume proper production... the effect of what the municipality proposes is, in fact, the closure of our plant."
He said the company had not been given adequate notice of the power cuts, nor had it been consulted, and it intended to seek a review of the municipality's decision, pending which it wanted an interim interdict preventing the municipality from cutting its electricity.
Conditions
He offered to save 10 percent of electricity consumption through shutdowns and energy-saving at the company's other plants.
Advocate Peter Olsen, for the company, pointed out that the Act stipulated that electricity could only be terminated under specific conditions, including liquidation and non-payment of bills.
But advocate John Pammenter, for the municipality, said this was not termination, but an interruption of the power supply, and the Act did not apply to municipalities.
He said there would be dire consequences - seven hours of blackouts every day - for residential electricity users should power cuts be prohibited in industrial areas.
"In comparison, this will cost the plant R7-million a month (until the end of June, when load-shedding is expected to be replaced with other electricity saving measures). For a big company that is a spit in the ocean," he said.
"They want to put the whole city at risk of Eskom cutting off the entire electricity supply," he said, insisting that Eskom had the power to do that should the city not reach its target of reducing its electricity demand by 104MW a day.
Pammenter argued that the municipality had not had time to consult all affected businesses and industries before introducing the Eskom-imposed cuts and it could not cede to one company "and set a precedent".
However, in the council's papers before the court, and during argument on Thursday, it was conceded that the municipality had made special arrangements with some industries, namely Toyota, Dunlop and Mondi.
With the clock ticking, the judge asked the parties to attempt to negotiate the way forward, pending his ruling on the interim order. But the municipality stuck to its guns and, with no agreement in sight, Anthony Dold, the deputy head of high voltage operations, asked to testify.
He said while it was possible to exempt the company "by switching 18 different switches", he warned of the dire consequences of setting such a precedent.
After conceding that it was possible to do it last night and on Saturday, the judge said: "Well, then do it."
Judgment is expected on Monday.
o This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on April 18, 2008
