Joburg defends load limiting households outside load-shedding

Hanno Labuschagne

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Joburg defends load limiting households outside load-shedding

Johannesburg electricity utility City Power has defended its plan to use load limiting to curb the energy demand of residents with smart meters outside of load-shedding hours.

When the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) first started promoting load limiting in 2015, it explained that the demand-side management mechanism was an alternative to implementing load-shedding.
 
However, these are not the households that are paying customers with working smart meters, who will now be punished for the actions of malicious users.

Therefore, City Power is also shifting the consequences of its failure to act against illegal electricity users to law-abiding citizens.

The city’s own observations showed those who are illegally connected or tampered with meters were amongst the highest consumers of electricity.
The crux of it (and less maintenance).
 
It's not defensible. That was never what the smart meters were sold as. Folks getting limited have a right to be angry.

Stop punishing law abiding people for your inability to deal with electricity theft and upgrade your infrastructure adequately.
 
This is just wrong in opinion. What if someone is away and it trips because the geyser and fridge went on the same time and they aren't there to manage the power.

They are just driving paying customers away that will leave them with all the non paying customers and much less paying customers that will just make the situation even worse.
 
This is just wrong in opinion. What if someone is away and it trips because the geyser and fridge went on the same time and they aren't there to manage the power.

They are just driving paying customers away that will leave them with all the non paying customers and much less paying customers that will just make the situation even worse.
If they used the same 10Amp like that Eskom users for their load limiting trial then ya Your geyser will cause you to lose power but if you're fridge is using that much you need a new fridge.

In theory these ideas are good if the main problem is idiotic people who don't understand how to manage their electricity wisely( not that we don't have a lot of those) and think because they pay that can use as much as they want(Irony is they the ones that complain when their bills are high)
but the problem is their overload are caused by illegal connections and they not doing much to solve that instead they implement this that only affects the good paying customers and this yes you right will cause more and more of those customers to go look for alternatives, like solar
And because the red tape is such a schlep they won't even bother feeding back to the grid
 
If they used the same 10Amp like that Eskom users for their load limiting trial then ya Your geyser will cause you to lose power but if you're fridge is using that much you need a new fridge.

In theory these ideas are good if the main problem is idiotic people who don't understand how to manage their electricity wisely( not that we don't have a lot of those) and think because they pay that can use as much as they want(Irony is they the ones that complain when their bills are high)
but the problem is their overload are caused by illegal connections and they not doing much to solve that instead they implement this that only affects the good paying customers and this yes you right will cause more and more of those customers to go look for alternatives, like solar
And because the red tape is such a schlep they won't even bother feeding back to the grid

How I read the MyBb article they reduce the 60 A to 10 amps for the house not just per breaker. That was the only two that I could think of that switches on passively, but still if everything switches on at the same time. There is swimming pool pumps etc as well.

I was just concerned of loss of food in the fridge/freezer when they trip the mains
 
How I read the MyBb article they reduce the 60 A to 10 amps for the house not just per breaker. That was the only two that I could think of that switches on passively, but still if everything switches on at the same time. There is swimming pool pumps etc as well.

I was just concerned of loss of food in the fridge/freezer when they trip the mains
You'd need quite a bit to switch on to hit 10amps, your swimming pool pump could run on 10amps, your fridge could run as well. 10amps is 2400w
 
You'd need quite a bit to switch on to hit 10amps, your swimming pool pump could run on 10amps, your fridge could run as well. 10amps is 2400w
Doesn’t circuit breakers run in parallel? So you add all the current together for the main breaker?

Geyser 2-4kW
Pool pump
Fridge
Freezer

Add all those together you are going to draw more than 10 A.

In anycase, I just read the article again. It seems they can switch your power back on so my biggest concern isn’t really applicable. But I still wouldn’t want a power outage if I am not there to attend to it.
 
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Doesn’t circuit breakers run in parallel? So you add all the current together for the main breaker?
What does that have to do with what you can run on 2400w?
 
What does that have to do with what you can run on 2400w?
My house draws more than 2300 W sometimes when I am not there. It is not one thing that draws it is many.

I wouldn’t want that.
 
My house draws more than 2300 W sometimes when I am not there. It is not one thing that draws it is many.

I wouldn’t want that.
How does it draw more than 2300w when you're not there? You'll also apparently get an sms to say they are going to load limit you. But there isn't 100% indication which areas and for how long and and, I've got a feeling this will still be around high density areas with high illegal connections.
 
How does it draw more than 2300w when you're not there? You'll also apparently get an sms to say they are going to load limit you. But there isn't 100% indication which areas and for how long and and, I've got a feeling this will still be around high density areas with high illegal connections.
I gave the example if a combination of things switch on like the pool pump, fridge, freezer, geyser.

Your geyser could be on a timer and it just falls into that time period which is already 2400 to 4000W.

Fridges normally use about 150 Watt. I can have multiple of these. Freezers as well.

A standard pool pump could use between 1500 and 2500W. They tend to be on a timer as well.

I am not home now and my house is pulling 2400W. But that is just the geyser timing on.

The sms won’t help if I am not there. And yes I do suspect that they wouldn’t have done this to me, but still. If I was in that position I would be angry.
 
I gave the example if a combination of things switch on like the pool pump, fridge, freezer, geyser.

Your geyser could be on a timer and it just falls into that time period which is already 2400 to 4000W.

Fridges normally use about 150 Watt. I can have multiple of these. Freezers as well.

A standard pool pump could use between 1500 and 2500W. They tend to be on a timer as well.

I am not home now and my house is pulling 2400W. But that is just the geyser timing on.
Actually standard pool pump is 750 to 1500w, but generally it's 750w, if you've got a massive swimming pool of 65kl you'd need a 1000w, if you had solar on the roof then 1500w.
Also fridges only spike when they are turned on. unless it's really really old, generally my fridge and freezer if they aren't running barely blip on the power, when they are running both combined are 150w. Only when plugging it in does it spike to 1000w for a split second.
Geysers if you're worried, turn it off when you're not home, the others will not cause you to use more than 2400w, the only real issue is your geyser and stove.
 
Actually standard pool pump is 750 to 1500w, but generally it's 750w, if you've got a massive swimming pool of 65kl you'd need a 1000w, if you had solar on the roof then 1500w.
Also fridges only spike when they are turned on. unless it's really really old, generally my fridge and freezer if they aren't running barely blip on the power, when they are running both combined are 150w. Only when plugging it in does it spike to 1000w for a split second.
Geysers if you're worried, turn it off when you're not home, the others will not cause you to use more than 2400w, the only real issue is your geyser and stove.
I have a geyserwise to prepare water for me when I get home (when solar didn’t heat it sufficiently).

But I am not even arguing for me here. I will normally be okay without power from eskom.

The thing is your power can be cut when you are not home and something power sensitive can be running that you which not be interrupted.
 
I have a geyserwise to prepare water for me when I get home (when solar didn’t heat it sufficiently).

But I am not even arguing for me here. I will normally be okay without power from eskom.

The thing is your power can be cut when you are not home and something power sensitive can be running that you which not be interrupted.
Ok and power can be cut any time... That isn't something new, perhaps it's cause living in a City Power zone, you just get used to having regular power outages that it's like eh.
 
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