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City will do its best to help its customers during Eskom’s load-shedding this week<p>The City is able to assist this week to soften the impact from Eskom’s load-shedding on City-supplied customers due to spare generation capacity from the Steenbras Hydro-electric Power Scheme.</p><p>Planned maintenance of the plant, however, starts from next week and is expected to continue until May 2020. </p><p>‘The necessary maintenance was planned for this period as electricity usage is lower at this time of the year, which would ideally have had a minimal impact on City-supplied customers. But, unfortunately should load-shedding continue in the weeks and months ahead, the City will be unable to assist its customers with additional generation capacity,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, Councillor Phindile Maxiti. </p><p>All residents of Cape Town are encouraged to plan ahead and to follow a few simple tips to ensure that they stay connected, healthy and safe. </p><p><strong>Tips </strong><br>• Communication: Ensure that your cell phone, laptop, tablet and radio are always fully charged when power is available. This will allow you to be able to communicate with friends and family during load-shedding.<br>• Transport: Make sure that your vehicle always has fuel in the tank as most petrol stations are unable to pump fuel during power outages.<br>• Cash: Keep some cash on you as ATMs cannot operate without electricity<br>• Security and safety: Backup batteries for electric gates, garage doors and security systems should be kept in a good working condition and be able to last through periods of load-shedding. Store temporary lighting such as battery-powered torches, gas lamps and candles in places where they will be easy to find in the dark<br>• Eating: If you do not have a gas stove, prepare meals before the power is scheduled to be switched off. Boil water in your kettle and keep it in thermos flasks for hot drinks. You can also use an insulating cover on teapots, pots and pans to keep drinks and meals warm<br>• Medication: Most medication requiring refrigeration can be kept in a closed fridge for several hours without spoiling, but you should check with your doctor or pharmacist if in doubt<br>• Traffic lights: Intersections with traffic lights that are not working because of load-shedding should be treated as four-way-stops. The motorist who stops first may proceed first if the way is clear and safe to do so. Please stay calm and follow defensive driving techniques</p><p><strong>Be energy-wise</strong> <br>• Switch off those appliances that you don’t need<br>• Switch off your geyser and only switch it on for up to two hours per day. This will save a lot of electricity and it will save you money<br>• Delay switching on lights and appliances until after the peak periods (between 17:00 and 21:00) whenever possible <br>• Switch off your pool pump, geyser and other large electrical equipment, and never run both at the same time<br>• Adjust air conditioners to 23 degrees Celsius if you need to use them <br>• Visit  <a href="https://www.savingelectricity.org.za/">https://www.SavingElectricity.org.za</a> for more tips to save electricity and follow load-shedding developments on  <a href="https://www.capetown.gov.za/loadshedding">https://www.capetown.gov.za/loadshedding</a></p><p>City fighting to be allowed to buy electricity from independent producers<br>‘The City has taken the Minister of Energy and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to Court to allow it, and municipalities across South Africa, to buy energy from Independent Power Producers in light of Eskom’s inability to provide for a reliable and cleaner energy supply to the residents and businesses of Cape Town. The matter is expected to be heard in the first half of next year. </p><p>‘Metros simply must be the energy champions of their residents and of their commercial sector players. It is a right which is entrenched in the Constitution and the City intends on providing its customers with the option of consistent, and cleaner energy supply while combating both rising electricity costs and the impact of climate change,’ said Councillor Maxiti.</p><p>The City maintains that it is vital for the national government to open up the electricity generation environment if cities are to be able to reduce carbon emissions and if the security of power supply is to be achieved.</p><p>Nuisance tripping <br>When power is restored after load-shedding, nuisance tripping sometimes occurs. </p><p>This is when the power is restored to an area and fails to come back on in some parts. The power outage often goes unreported because residents assume that it is due to load-shedding. If customers experience an outage at an unscheduled time, or the electricity supply remains off for longer than the period specified in the schedule, please SMS the details to the City’s Technical Operations Centre on 31220. <br> <br>Residents are encouraged to reduce the risk and occurrence of nuisance tripping by switching off appliances, including geysers, air conditioners and pool pumps prior to load-shedding and leaving one light on to indicate the return of the supply.<br> <br>City teams always try their best to respond as soon as possible and within available capacity when a call is logged that an outage is carrying on for longer than the specific timeframe that has been indicated by Eskom for load-shedding. Service requests usually increase during load-shedding. This can cause operational delays. We thank our residents in advance for their understanding. </p><p>More information on load-shedding<br>Load-shedding announcements by Eskom are typically made with very short notice.</p><p>Please continue to follow the City on Facebook and Twitter for Eskom load-shedding alerts. City-supplied customers will be directed to the City’s website <a>https:// www.capetown.gov.za/loadshedding</a> for updates and for accessing the load-shedding schedule. Eskom customers should please visit <a href="https://www.loadshedding.eskom.co.za/">https://www.loadshedding.eskom.co.za</a></p><p>Please note that Eskom is the lead authority on load-shedding. </p><p><br><strong>End</strong></p>2019-10-15T22:00:00ZGP0|#e3c03ac1-845c-4119-815d-e796340463ba;L0|#0e3c03ac1-845c-4119-815d-e796340463ba|Community news;GTSet|#62efe227-07aa-45e7-944c-ceebacca891dGP0|#c939220c-f64a-463e-82d5-22b9981ccb0e;L0|#0c939220c-f64a-463e-82d5-22b9981ccb0e|Eskom;GTSet|#2e3de6c1-9951-4747-8f53-470629a399bb;GP0|#8d25a44c-752c-4a86-bc47-c45a7cc51a26;L0|#08d25a44c-752c-4a86-bc47-c45a7cc51a26|Load shedding;GP0|#6516fa5e-93e3-4953-9f54-0f246e1d7556;L0|#06516fa5e-93e3-4953-9f54-0f246e1d7556|City of Cape Town1

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