The City of Cape Town, who invested R800 million in electricity infrastructure between July and October, says the high levels of loadshedding are threatening these investments.
The City explains that the investments went towards repairs, maintenance and critical upgrades in attempts to provide a reliable electricity supply for Capetonians.
With the country back into level 6 loadshedding, Mayco Member for Energy, Beverley van Reenan, says that these high stages could be extremely detrimental to electricity infrastructure.
Also read: Eskom implements stage 6 loadshedding
Van Reenan says that the City has protected customers from more than 60% of country-wide loadshedding, which amounts to 1 700 of the 3 000 hours of loadshedding.
“However, Eskom’s load shedding hammers our electrical infrastructure. Our infrastructure is not designed for this level of continuous load shedding, and we should not underestimate the impact it has on electricity infrastructure,” Van Reenan explains.
“The damage caused leads to prolonged outages after load shedding and high volumes of service requests,” she continues.
Teams will be working throughout the festive season to ensure a consistent electricity supply, carry out maintenance and upgrades, and deal with damage caused by the ongoing loadshedding.
However, along with electricity infrastructure, other facilities also suffer from the absence of power.
For example, more than 100 sewer pump stations in Cape Town need generators to deal with loadshedding and prevent sewage overflows, which will cost the City almost R200 million.
Also read: Hilarious loadshedding TikToks to lighten your mood
With 116 of 487 sewer pump stations deemed to require generators, the City could either face sewage overflows without them or have to pay R197 million on top of civil requirements, professional services provider input, fuel costs and maintenance for the generators.
The high loadshedding levels also increase the time the pumps are down at water and waste treatment plants, adding to the threat of water cuts.
Western Cape Local Government MEC Anton Bredell explains that the sewage and water works already being under severe pressure is one of the biggest concerns facing municipalities right now, as the electricity cuts result in pumps stalling at plants.
Last week, Bredell said that the provincial Disaster Management Centre, who monitors critical infrastructure, is ready to handle high loadshedding levels over the festive season.
“Previous experience has shown that municipal water and sewage systems struggle with extended loadshedding above Stage 4, so this is of concern for us,” Bredell said.
He continued to urge people to save electricity wherever they can and to plan with the current reality in mind.
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde explains that The Western Cape government’s energy crisis contingency plan is continuously updated, and will see the provincial Disaster Management Centre taking the lead in managing the situation should it worsen.
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