The frustration with Bethal’s electricity continues as this town is still bombarded with constant load-shedding and power outages.
Some people sit without electricity for up to eight hours a day or the electricity goes on and off the whole time.
DA councillor, Mariaan Chamberlain, organised an information evening on Wednesday, May 11 to help residents understand the dire electricity situation of Bethal and eMzinoni.
Chamberlain invited two outsiders with knowledge about electricity, Theuns Taljaard and Robbie Launsbach, to explain things on Wednesday evening.
Taljaard explained how the load-shedding and electricity demands work, while Launsbach was supposed to speak about solar panels and new electricity meters in Bethal that are not working, but they ran out of time and only Taljaard addressed the residents.
Chamberlain said everybody knows that the load-shedding experienced in Bethal and eMzinoni, is because of Govan Mbeki Municipality’s failure to settle its Eskom bill.
Part of the problem with the municipality’s high bill is that the municipality receives less than 50% of the money for electricity used in Bethal.
Chamberlain wanted residents to understand how this initiative of Eskom and Govan Mbeki Municipality works.
Apart from the load-shedding, Bethal faced numerous other issues over the past few months when it comes to electricity, such as the power cables in the area of the newly built mall being covered in concrete and municipal workers having to open it first before they could fix a cable fault.
Chamberlain explained what residents do not understand is that eMzinoni is much bigger than Bethal and thus the demand for electricity is much higher.
The municipality is planning on building a substation in eMzinoni with 40MVA (a 40 mega volt-amp) which will help with the distribution in the greater area of eMzinoni. She said it has nothing to do with eMzinoni’s notified maximum demand (NMD) for electricity.
However, it will also help lift the burden on Bethal’s electricity.
“Bethal will probably still experience load-shedding, but maybe a little less,” said Chamberlain.
Bethal currently has an 11 kilovolt-ampere (KvA) and the notified maximum demand (NMD) is 18,72.
For eMzinoni, the KvA is 22 and the NMD is 8, no extra demands for eMzinoni were approved.
For Secunda and Trichardt, the NMD is 60 and the demand is 32,4.
Evander receives 12 NMD and the demand is 10,68; for Kinross, the NMD is 7,72 and the current demand is at its maximum capacity.
For eMbalenhle, the NMD is 34 and the maximum capacity has already been reached, which is why there are often load-shedding and power outages in eMbalenhle.
The NMD for the Bracken substation is 20 and the maximum capacity has also already been reached.
To lift the burden on electricity for Bethal residents, Chamberlain, who is on the technical portfolio, suggested the municipality reconsider the load-shedding schedule and maybe only apply load-shedding every two hours.
“Then at least residents would be able to plan accordingly,” said Chamberlain.
Another aspect residents battle to understand is how the equipment that is used by the municipality to find cable faults, works.
“The machine they use, a thumper, is a very time-consuming process,” said Chamberlain.
“The municipal workers have to walk with that machine over the cable and cover the area mm for mm, they cannot walk faster because then the machine will not pick up the fault.
“This takes time and what residents must also understand, is that we, as councillors, do not have the authority to give demands to municipal workers.
“Just like residents, we also have to go through the call centre and get a job number or a reference number if we report on any municipal issues.”
She said residents must remember, that although Ward 28 of Bethal is now a DA ward, the municipality is still run by the ANC.
