The metro took a moment to explain how the load shedding stages work and how the metro reacts in each stage.<\/p>\n
The metro only sheds in areas that are supplied by the municipality.<\/p>
Areas supplied by Eskom, are control by Eskom and residents are encouraged to view Eskom’s load shedding schedule for all three stages.<\/p>\n
The metro also does not shed industrial areas during stage one and stage two.<\/p>
“This is why areas falling under an industrial area do not appear on the metro’s load shedding schedule,” explained Themba Gadebe, spokesman for the metro.<\/p>\n
“In the event that a non-residential area does not appear on the schedule, residents are encouraged to inform the municipality as there might be an error on the schedule.<\/p>\n
“An investigation will be carried through and the areas that are supplied by the municipality will be included on an amended load shedding schedule.”<\/p>\n
Gadebe went on to explain that load shedding is implemented equitably to ensure that there is a fair rotation of load shedding to all customers throughout the day.<\/p>\n
“This is done to avoid customers from being affected at the same time of the days when load shedding is implemented.<\/p>\n
“If a customer were affected on a day at 5.30pm and 8pm for example, the next day the customer will be affected on a different time slot.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0How does the different load shedding stages work?<\/strong><\/p>\n Stage one is implemented when Eskom requests for load shedding range from between 10MW to 300MW.<\/p>\n “In this stage areas to be affected are divided into two equal load sizes to accommodate Eskom load reduction needs,” Gadebe said.<\/p>\n “If the metro schedule has eight areas in a block to be affected , only four of the eight areas may be affected on day one and the other remaining four areas will be affected on day two.”<\/p>\n When stage two is declared, the metro’s schedules are implemented in full.<\/p>\n If there are eight areas in a block, all eight areas will be affected.<\/p>\n When Eskom’s grid in under severe pressure stage three is implemented.<\/p>\n “Stage three is completely out of metro’s control and is implemented by Eskom to protect the National Grid from collapsing and avoid a blackout.<\/p>\n “Due to the sudden and unplanned loss of generation capacity from Eskom, the metro seldom receives an early notification that Stage three will be implemented,” Gadebe explained.<\/p>\n “On average, the metro receives ten minutes notification that Stage three will implemented and at times no notification is received, depending on the emergency of the situation.”<\/p>\n It is important to note that Eskom only takes control of the metro’s load shedding schedule at stage three.<\/p>\n “There are events when Eskom experiences technical challenges with their remote links to restore power resulting to their technicians having to manually restore power at substations.<\/p>\n “This unfortunately results to restoration time taking much longer than expected and residents complaining that the load shedding schedule is not properly followed,” concluded Gadebe.<\/p>\n\n
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