Enpower Machite shines light on Bethal and eMzinoni electricity supply

There has been a huge improvement in the electricity supply since Enpower Machite was appointed as a service provider for the management, operation, maintenance and revenue enhancement of the entire electricity distribution network of Bethal and eMzinoni.

Ward councillors from Bethal and eMzinoni and the media were briefed on the latest development of the electricity supply and taken on a tour of the 88kV substation site.

The founders of Enpower Machite, Rhulani Matshidze and Virginia Teffo, shed light on the electricity woes since their appointment in 2021.

“Nothing could have prepared us for the first year. It was tough,” Matshidze said.

Bethal experienced continuous power outages on top of national load-shedding and additional load reduction due to the notified maximin demand (NMD) and Eskom refusing to put up the NMD due to Govan Mbeki Municipality’s debt.
Enpower Machite had to find the reason beyond the NMD.

“We walked every corner of the network,” Teffo said.

From dilapidated infrastructure and transformers to illegal connections, Enpower Machite has five years to restore the electricity supply grid.

“Our five-year plan is to fix the network. We needed to make sure we are using electricity properly with what is being provided by Eskom,” Teffo said.

She explained that the network has been sectionalised so that if one area is experiencing electrical maintenance or faults, it would not impact the other surrounding areas. Teffo said there are still challenges with illegal connections.

“We had to increase the network supply so that everyone can have electricity, as well as infrastructure to carry out the capacity for many years to come.”

Reducing the NMD required new meters. Those who were not paying previously now have to pay and use electricity more sparingly.

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“If we don’t install the meters, our challenges will never go away. More than 12 000 meters have been installed. Around 90% of the meters installed are paying,” Teffo said.

Fixing the network was not something that could be done overnight, however, Teffo assures customers that Enpower Machite is progressing well and doing its best to communicate any challenges. Enpower Machite’s call centre communicates to customers issues, good or bad, that are in relation to the electricity supply value chain.

“Our control centre controls the grid so that at any given time we can see what is happening with the network and control it,” Matshidze said.

She said Enpower Machite controls Bethal and eMzinoni’s load-shedding schedules. The new substation of 88kV was built to transport the capacity from Eskom to connect more customers.

“This is the biggest substation in GMM. It is a big asset for this area,” Matshidze said.

She said Bethal and eMzinoni’s NMD is now around 16 MVA (13 MVA on 11kV and 2 MVA on 22k kV) on cold days in comparison to its previous demand of almost 50MVA before Eskom limited GMM to 26MVA.

To date, the eMzinoni substation project is at 65% done, and Enpower Machite believes they will complete the project by the end of 2027.