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City Power implements load shedding at two-hour intervals to ‘provide relief’
City Power took over load shedding from Eskom which has led to confusion over when residents can expect power cuts.
City Power said this will also curb cable theft and vandalism. Picture: iStock
As stage 6 load shedding continues until 12pm on Sunday, Johannesburg’s City Power said it is implementing the power cuts at two-hour intervals throughout the city.
City Power took over load shedding from Eskom at the beginning of November which has led to confusion over when residents can expect power cuts.
Relief
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said instead of implementing four consecutive hours of blackouts on two or more occasions in a day in Johannesburg, the regional utility has spread out those four hours, to provide customers with two hours of relief in between
“This would enable those working from home or relying on life supporting medical equipment to quickly recharge their devices and continue with minimal interruption, under these unpleasant circumstances.”
ALSO READ: Eskom reduces load shedding from stage 6 to lower stages – Here’s your schedule for the week
Cable theft and vandalism
Mangena said it is hoped that this will also curb cable theft and vandalism.
“One of those factors is that, previously during stage 6 load shedding, we encountered a high number of cases of cable theft and vandalism. Almost after every four hours of load shedding, a case of cable fault, theft and vandalism would be reported. This is because criminals have sufficient time to dig and cut as much cable as possible during that period. This would then result in prolonged outages.
“At some point, the business could not cope with the rate at which our cables and other infrastructure were being vandalised, leaving some customers without electricity for numerous days. This was happening despite our efforts in ramping up security, including involving JMPD and Saps,” Mangena said.
Eskom load shedding
Meanwhile, Eskom has announced that load shedding will be reduced to stage 4 from Sunday afternoon.
The country was thrust into stage 6 power cuts on Friday.
The parastatal‘s spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the implementation of stage 6 power cuts over the past few days has allowed the replenishment of the emergency reserves at the power stations.
ALSO READ: Here’s how often the light will now be off under City Power’s load shedding schedule
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