Despite a number of contingency measures in place, Eskom’s non-stop bouts of loadshedding at high stages, including stage 6, have been impacting City infrastructures in a significantly negative way:
Also read: Loadshedding escalated to stage 6 every night until further notice
Signalised traffic intersections
Nearly 75% of signalised intersections on the City’s road network are equipped with Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems. This is 1228 of the City’s 1,652 traffic signals.
Unfortunately, the UPS batteries do not have sufficient time in between Eskom’s bouts of non-stop stage 4 to 6 blackouts to recharge.
Loadshedding-related sewer overflows
With high, prolonged stages of loadshedding, the risk of sewer spills and overflows increases significantly, despite the City’s contingency measures put in place.
An added challenge is the dumping of inappropriate material in the sewer system, which leads to blockages and further system damage.
Additionally, the City’s sewer pump stations require electricity to function effectively and convey sewage to Wastewater Treatment Plants where it can be treated.
As a means to mitigate the impact of loadshedding:
- Larger priority sewer pump stations are being fitted with permanent generators as a measure to increase the resilience of sanitation supply systems
- Maintenance staff are on standby and will use mobile generators to power smaller pumps
- All pump stations are fitted with telemetry to assist with monitoring the sump levels of the facilities
Loadshedding hammering electricity infrastructure
The City’s maintenance and management of its electricity networks take a hammering due to the constant rolling blackouts at these high stages. The damage to infrastructure often leads to prolonged outages and increased service requests.
Sometimes, pockets of areas are excluded from loadshedding for a period in order to do critical, necessary maintenance work.
Secondary tripping
In some cases, there are also prolonged outages that result from secondary tripping. This happens when the electricity comes back on after loadshedding.
However, due to electricity returning at the same time in a particular pocket of an area, the power often trips and shuts off again a few minutes later.
To help reduce the occurrence of this, residents are advised to switch off electrical appliances ahead of loadshedding to prevent secondary outages.
Illegal connections, electrical cable theft and substation damage
Illegal connections and damage to infrastructure can also lead to further outages. Continuous loadshedding at high stages leaves the City’s infrastructures vulnerable.
Residents are encouraged to report any incidents of theft, vandalism and damage to infrastructure to the City and the South African Police Service
The City offers a reward of R5000 to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest, confiscation of stolen or illegal goods or the handing in of illegal or stolen goods.
The R5000 reward is also applicable to information leading to the arrest of people vandalising, damaging or stealing electricity infrastructure or the installation of illegal connections.
City of Cape Town customer protection
Eskom’s current condition also affects the City’s ability to protect its customers from a stage or two of loadshedding at times due to an inability to generate enough reserves to protect at high stages of non-stop loadshedding.
Activation of Disaster Coordinating Team
Following Eskom’s activation of stage 6, the City of Cape Town’s transversal Disaster Operations Centre has been activated in an attempt to mitigate any potential impact for Cape Town residents.
The situation is being closely monitored.
Traffic and additional enforcement resources are on standby to be deployed if required for any public safety issues, or in areas affected by prolonged power outages.
Contact details:
- Public Emergency Centre: 021 480 7700
- Report damage to municipal electrical infrastructure: SMS 31220 | Email [email protected]
- Report continuous outages to 24h Transport Info Centre: 0800 65 64 63
Also read:
The Western Cape government focuses on being energy resilient in 2023
Picture: Unsplash