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City Power says Eskom ‘go-slow’ is extending outages by 5 hours in parts of JHB
City Power said its customers have been hard done and many only have their electricity restored hours after load shedding has finished.
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City Power, the municipal electricity provider in the City of Johannesburg, claims an ongoing go-slow by Eskom employees is having a negative impact on its customers. In some parts of the metro, customers reportedly have to wait between three to five hours before their electricity supply is restored after load shedding.
CITY POWER FRUSTRATED BY ESKOM
City Power said the national power supplier issued a statement last week about the difficulties it is experiencing with its technicians’ response times, which confirmed that the workers are on a go-slow over overtime allowances.
The municipal provider is concerned that the go-slow is negatively impacting customers who are already frustrated with the blackouts associated with load shedding.
“Our customers have in recent days been hard done when electricity is supposed to be restored after load shedding with many restored several hours after their scheduled restorations,” said City Power in a statement on Wednesday, 10 November.
Most customers in the “border” areas of the municipality – such Randburg, Midrand and Lenasia – have been affected, while customers and the north of Johannesburg, including Northriding and Windsor, have been the hardest hit, according to City Power.
Customers in the northern areas go between three to five hours without electricity after they are load shed.
SUBSTATION DELAYS
City Power said delays at transformers at Windsor and Olivedale substations are the cause of the extended outages.
The municipal provider said the Windsor substation was load shed at 2:00 on Wednesday morning and electricity was meant to be restored by 4:30, however, customers only had their power turned back on at 8:00. The Olivedale substation was also impacted in this way.
The same delays took place on Tuesday, according to City Power. “This is unacceptable. We have raised our concerns with Eskom in this regard and appeal to our customers to bear with us as we try to resolve this with Eskom.”
City Power said the national power provider must address its staff or fix its system to enable the implementation of load shedding remotely instead of manually.
