High power use a shock to Tshwane system – MMC
The influx of people into the capital city was another factor impacting on power usage with about 10 000 a month.
Pretoria was on the edge of its full Eskom capacity with a high usage of 93 percent, Tshwane MMC for utility services Darryl Moss told Rekord in a wide-ranging interview.
Moss said that in proper electrical engineering planning, residents should not use more than 85 percent – a reserve of 15 percent should be available in case of emergency.
“We are severely over the quantity of power that we should be using and that puts a strain on the whole network system.”
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He said an agreement had been reached with Eskom to build a major infeed station in the east of Mamelodi which has already started and should be completed by 2021.
“That should give us enough power going forward.”
He said other challenges included load shedding.
“As load shedding happens it shocks the system as it is being switched on and off making it vulnerable, further resulting in the city losing revenue.
“We are putting plans in place to limit that because we expect load shedding to be ongoing for a while.”
Moss told Rekord the influx of people into the capital city was another factor impacting on power usage with about 10 000 a month. “It is getting us closer to the limit of the power supply.”
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He said the metro encouraged going green and for rooftop solar panels, recycling of water and environmentally-friendly energy mix for all new developments in its area.
Going into the festive season he said residents should be reassured that essential services would be kept operational.
“We haven’t given leave to any staff involved in the electrical operations. We have given leave to people in planning. In the regions, they have been very careful to make sure that there is enough staff around to deal with emergencies.”
He said major projects planned for 2019 included the replacement of the 13 000 Peu smart meters at a cost of R85 million.
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Work to replace the meters was expected to start at the end of January whereby a new meter management system would be installed. All the required meters have been procured and the contractors were also ready, Moss said.
He said the replacement of the meters would help mitigate losses as the metro believed the old meters were faulty.
“R20 million will go towards underground and overhead cable network and R35 million to public lighting which is high masts and street lights.”
He said the year had been a tumultuous one electricity-wise, with the burning down of the Wapadrand sub-station and rampant cable theft and vandalism major setbacks.
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