It is good news for households, but bad news for businesses operating in industrial areas — that is the upshot of Nelson Mandela Bay’s rejigging of its load-shedding schedule.
Domestic users will not be shed for longer than 2½ hours at a time from Monday but industrial areas — which were exempt from blackouts in the past — will be hit with four-hour bouts if Eskom implements stages 5 to 8 load-shedding.
Electricity and energy executive director Luvuyo Magalela, who said the municipality had spent more than a year planning the new schedule, made the announcement on Wednesday.
Eskom has attributed the load-shedding to a litany of reasons‚ including a breakdown of some power stations, issues with coal, and the need to carry out essential maintenance and replenish diesel and water reserves.
It has warned that the constrained electricity grid means that load-shedding could continue for at least 18 months.
Nelson Mandela Bay has suffered some of the longest bouts of load-shedding in the country since the municipality first developed the original schedule in 2014.
However, Magalela said a reduction in the long load-shedding bouts was a result of domestic groups increasing from eight to 19, while suburbs that were previously never shed were added to the schedule because substations had been fixed.
Originally, the municipality calculated the domestic schedule over an eight-day cycle but this has been moved up to 19 days.
This, Magalela, said also helped in the municipality being able to reduce the number of hours that the power will be off.
“Also, we have shuffled the domestic groups around with those who used more and those who used less clumped together, resulting in less load-shedding.”
He said industrial groups will be increased from eight to 11.
“Furthermore, we calculated the cycle for industrial groups over 11 days and only industrial groups will be shed for four hours at a time, from now on,” Magalela said.
However, he said discussions would continue with the industrial companies to find an amicable solution.
“We hope an agreement is reached so the industrial areas are not shed further.
“When load-shedding first started in 2008, we took a conscious decision not to switch off industrial areas to avoid major disruptions that can lead to job losses.”
However, Magalela said the municipality had no option but to include the industrial areas if stage 5 and above were implemented.
For the first time on December 9, Eskom went above stage 4 by implementing stage 6 load-shedding.
However, the municipality stuck to stage 4 because no schedule above this level was available.
“Towards the end of last year, we were obligated by Eskom to add additional stages to the four we had in place.
“A document, compiled by various role players such as the SA Local Government Association, Eskom, Nersa, Grid Code Advisory Committee, NRS Committee and local government institutions, was also improved on.
“This document serves as a national guideline on how load-shedding should be implemented.
“In addition, we conducted social media polls on Twitter and Facebook to allow our consumers to have their say,” Magalela said.
The new revised schedules was created from the polls and the document, he said.
Citing an example of how things would change, Magalela said on the existing domestic schedule, stage 1 and stage 2 saw a group shed for 2½ hours during the day and 4½ hours at night.
For stage 3 and 4, the groups were shed for more than 4½ hours during the day and 4½ hours at night.
The revised domestic schedule will see groups — from stage 1 to stage 8 — shed for 2½ hours during the day and 2½ hours at night at a maximum of three times a day.
Magalela said certain areas would no longer be shed multiple times a day, which was a problem, resulting in scores of complaints from residents.
Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber infrastructure task team chair Angus Clark said the industrial sectors knew six months in advance that they would be added to the schedule.
“We have spoken about it and have tried to lessen the load expected to be shed,” he said.
This included some industries running little electricity during downtime.
He said other companies had shown an interest in the installation of ripple devices capable of switching off certain machines such as air-conditioners.
Despite the attempts to lessen the load, Clark said any shedding of industrial areas would have serious ramifications for various sectors such as the rubber and motor industries
“If you shut down an industrial company for four hours it can take up to four hours just to get up and running again,” he said.
Clark said during a bout of stage 5 load-shedding, up to 80% of industrial companies would stop working.
“If stage 5 went on for five days it would have devastating consequences on the industrial sector,” he said.
“However, it is not likely that stage 5 would continue for so long.”
Click here for Nelson Mandela Bay's load-shedding schedule and domestic groups:
New blackouts schedule good for households, bad for industrial areas
Image: 123RF / beercrafter
It is good news for households, but bad news for businesses operating in industrial areas — that is the upshot of Nelson Mandela Bay’s rejigging of its load-shedding schedule.
Domestic users will not be shed for longer than 2½ hours at a time from Monday but industrial areas — which were exempt from blackouts in the past — will be hit with four-hour bouts if Eskom implements stages 5 to 8 load-shedding.
Electricity and energy executive director Luvuyo Magalela, who said the municipality had spent more than a year planning the new schedule, made the announcement on Wednesday.
Eskom has attributed the load-shedding to a litany of reasons‚ including a breakdown of some power stations, issues with coal, and the need to carry out essential maintenance and replenish diesel and water reserves.
It has warned that the constrained electricity grid means that load-shedding could continue for at least 18 months.
Nelson Mandela Bay has suffered some of the longest bouts of load-shedding in the country since the municipality first developed the original schedule in 2014.
However, Magalela said a reduction in the long load-shedding bouts was a result of domestic groups increasing from eight to 19, while suburbs that were previously never shed were added to the schedule because substations had been fixed.
Originally, the municipality calculated the domestic schedule over an eight-day cycle but this has been moved up to 19 days.
This, Magalela, said also helped in the municipality being able to reduce the number of hours that the power will be off.
“Also, we have shuffled the domestic groups around with those who used more and those who used less clumped together, resulting in less load-shedding.”
He said industrial groups will be increased from eight to 11.
“Furthermore, we calculated the cycle for industrial groups over 11 days and only industrial groups will be shed for four hours at a time, from now on,” Magalela said.
However, he said discussions would continue with the industrial companies to find an amicable solution.
“We hope an agreement is reached so the industrial areas are not shed further.
“When load-shedding first started in 2008, we took a conscious decision not to switch off industrial areas to avoid major disruptions that can lead to job losses.”
However, Magalela said the municipality had no option but to include the industrial areas if stage 5 and above were implemented.
For the first time on December 9, Eskom went above stage 4 by implementing stage 6 load-shedding.
However, the municipality stuck to stage 4 because no schedule above this level was available.
“Towards the end of last year, we were obligated by Eskom to add additional stages to the four we had in place.
“A document, compiled by various role players such as the SA Local Government Association, Eskom, Nersa, Grid Code Advisory Committee, NRS Committee and local government institutions, was also improved on.
“This document serves as a national guideline on how load-shedding should be implemented.
“In addition, we conducted social media polls on Twitter and Facebook to allow our consumers to have their say,” Magalela said.
The new revised schedules was created from the polls and the document, he said.
Citing an example of how things would change, Magalela said on the existing domestic schedule, stage 1 and stage 2 saw a group shed for 2½ hours during the day and 4½ hours at night.
For stage 3 and 4, the groups were shed for more than 4½ hours during the day and 4½ hours at night.
The revised domestic schedule will see groups — from stage 1 to stage 8 — shed for 2½ hours during the day and 2½ hours at night at a maximum of three times a day.
Magalela said certain areas would no longer be shed multiple times a day, which was a problem, resulting in scores of complaints from residents.
Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber infrastructure task team chair Angus Clark said the industrial sectors knew six months in advance that they would be added to the schedule.
“We have spoken about it and have tried to lessen the load expected to be shed,” he said.
This included some industries running little electricity during downtime.
He said other companies had shown an interest in the installation of ripple devices capable of switching off certain machines such as air-conditioners.
Despite the attempts to lessen the load, Clark said any shedding of industrial areas would have serious ramifications for various sectors such as the rubber and motor industries
“If you shut down an industrial company for four hours it can take up to four hours just to get up and running again,” he said.
Clark said during a bout of stage 5 load-shedding, up to 80% of industrial companies would stop working.
“If stage 5 went on for five days it would have devastating consequences on the industrial sector,” he said.
“However, it is not likely that stage 5 would continue for so long.”
Click here for Nelson Mandela Bay's load-shedding schedule and domestic groups:
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