Load shedding prevention in Cape Town, Joburg

The City of Cape Town and Johannesburg metropolitan municipalities were both able to avert stage 1 load shedding on the evening of 21 June.

This was thanks to additional capacity that the two metros were able to use to make up the power load that needed to be shed.

However, residents should not expect the power utilities to always be able to do this.

Eskom announced at 15:48 on 21 June that it would implement stage 1 load shedding from 17:00, and that it was likely to continue until 22:00.

Following the announcement, the City of Cape Town and Johannesburg said they would be able to spare residents from stage 1 load shedding.

After a further shortage in capacity, Eskom implemented stage 2 load shedding from around 18:00 – which continued until 21:19.

Asked about the additional capacity at their disposal, City Power said the Kelvin power station offers around 120MW, while the Steenbras station can give Cape Town 180MW of extra power.

The City of Cape Town explained it may have spare capacity at times outside the peak periods and at times when the peaks are low.

“It is very important to note that this option is not a given, and that an assessment is done prior to implementing any stage of load shedding,” the City of Cape Town said.

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