City customers on Stage 1 load-shedding; use less, flatten the evening peak

01 September 2020

With the unfortunate resumption of Eskom’s load-shedding, the City of Cape Town will continue to do its best to protect its customers on the lowest stages of load-shedding, being Stages 1 and 2, through generating extra capacity where possible. City customers are on Stage 1 load-shedding while Eskom customers are on Stage 2 until 22:00 tonight.

Please reduce usage and flatten the evening peak by doing chores that require electricity, such as washing and bathing, ahead of the evening peak where at all possible.

Customers are advised that load-shedding, on top of the cold, wet and windy weather we’ve experienced, and on top of COVID-19 regulations, leads to increased service requests and affects the time it takes to attend to faults and outages. We thank our customers for their understanding.

‘We urge our customers to reduce their usage especially during the peak hours between 17:00 and 21:00. Flatten the peak by switching off the appliances you do not need and do your washing, laundry and other tasks outside of the peak hours where possible. Dress warmly and try to reduce the use of electrical heaters. Reducing household energy consumption not only helps with the pressure on Eskom’s supply, it is more climate-friendly and helps households cut electricity usage.

‘Please be patient when logging service requests as the impact of the stormy weather and load-shedding will likely affect the time that it takes to resolve a service request. You can help to reduce the risk of nuisance tripping from load-shedding by switching off electrical appliances prior to load-shedding and leaving one light on to indicate the return of the supply. Customers are requested to treat load-shedding outages that exceed 2,5 hours as unplanned outages. Please report these via the City’s service channels,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, Councillor Phindile Maxiti.

Nuisance tripping
Residents are encouraged to be mindful that they may also be experiencing outages due to Eskom's load-shedding, when power is restored after load-shedding, nuisance tripping sometimes occurs. 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. In the event of load-shedding, 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.

Customers are requested to treat load-shedding outages that exceed 2,5 hours as unplanned outages. Please report these via the City’s service channels to alert the technicians to intervene.

Trees affecting power lines, infrastructure

• Property owners are encouraged to maintain their trees and vegetation. Stormy weather usually contributes to an increase in power outages especially where tree branches grow over and into overhead power lines.
• The City’s Electricity Generation and Distribution Department has made every effort to minimise electricity outages caused by trees growing alongside overhead power lines by carrying out various tree clearing efforts in preparation for winter storms. Vegetation growing too close to overhead power lines is especially dangerous.
• Property owners or those renting a property are urged to do this maintenance work while taking safety precautions and to ensure the required clearance of at least 3,8 metres between vegetation and power lines. Residents are also reminded that branches that encroach on streetlights diminish their efficacy. Clearing of overhead lines can be dangerous and property owners can approach the City for advice if they have already let trees grow too close to power lines.
• Should residents be concerned that there is a risk of trees on City property encroaching on City overhead power lines, they are encouraged to report these cases to the City’s Fault Reporting Centre on 0860 103 089 or FaultReporting.Centre@capetown.gov.za.

Adopt smarter energy use habits in the home:

• Turn the geyser down to 60°C
• Switch off electrical appliances at the wall sockets when not in use to reduce energy
• Use less hot water
• Shower instead of bathing. You will save up to 80% in water and use five times less electricity than heating bath water if you take a short shower.
• Dry your laundry using sunshine where possible and try not to use the tumble dryer. For rainy days, use drying racks indoors
• Replace regular bulbs with energy-saving ones such as LEDs that use six times less electricity
• Seal gaps around windows and doors to keep heat from escaping and cold drafts from breezing in
• Use a stove plate that’s most similar to the size of your pot. An electric stove uses up to 40% of its heat when the pot is too small, which means you waste electricity. If you own an insulation cooker, bring your food to a boil then place it in there. The retained heat slow-cooks, saving up to 60% on energy

For more information on how to reduce usage, please visit www.savingelectricity.org.za

For service request, contact us (please only log on one channel and do not log the same request multiple times):
Call Centre: 0860 103 089
SMS: 31220 (Please note the free SMS service does not apply)
Email: power@capetown.gov.za
e-Services: https://www.capetown.gov.za/City-Connect/Report/Municipal-services-and-maintenance/Submit-a-service-request/Submit%20a%20service%20request%20online

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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office