The City of Johannesburg this morning, 26 January 2023, unveiled plans to mitigate loadshedding and keep the lights on for its long-suffering residents. The Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Mpho Phalatse, briefed the media ahead of a council meeting, about the multiparty government’s plan to mitigate loadshedding. She was flanked by the Member of Mayoral Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr Michael Sun, and City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava.
“Between 2020 and 2023, loadshedding reached unprecedented levels when Stage 6 became a lived reality, and this year, the city and country have been victims of loadshedding every day of 2023,” Cllr Phalatse explained.
She expressed concern that loadshedding already has dire effects on the local economy as well as on City Power. In 2022, City Power was hard hit, resulting in losses ranging from sales and revenue; employee costs in the form of overtime; equipment failure and damage; and crime-related incidents of theft and vandalism.
Cllr Phalatse said City Power experienced 122 days of loadshedding and 2,175 incidents of theft and vandalism between July 1, 2021 and November 11, 2022.
“The local power entity raised alarm bells this week when it announced that over the last year it has spent R200-million on 390 mini-substations due to theft and vandalism, which generally happens during loadshedding. We are losing on average two mini-substations per day.”
The City is rolling out City Power’s sustainable energy strategy, which consists of energy equality (access for all), energy independence (reducing reliance on Eskom), energy security (energy mix) and energy supply (stability of the network and minimal outages).
City Power has presented R401 million budget for a plan that could in the short to medium term avert up to Stage 3 loadshedding.
The plan consists of:
At R20 million, the City can recommission the two existing open-cycle gas turbine stations. This would, of course, requires the City to procure and burn diesel. This would add 74MW to the network.
At R85 million for a Ripple Relay System, City Power will be able to remotely regulate high-energy products such as geysers, swimming pool motors, and the like. This would save 80MW.
At R175 million, City Power would be able to procure and distribute smart meters and communication that will enable City Power to be able to limit the amount of power distributed to homes, so instead of completely turning the power off, we will be able to supply homes with enough energy to power essential needs. This will save an additional 322MW. This will not be done on a whim but will be communicated to customers, when the needed. The communication system will require R28 million.
This requires an Energy Management System upgrade, costing R120 million, which will enable City Power to better monitor, control, and optimise the performance of its transmission system.
Cllr Phalatse said the city does not have R400 million that can be easily shifted to this programme and is therefore looking at the creation of an infrastructure fund. City Power said it would take up to six months to get this mitigation plan active given that much of the infrastructure is already in place if it gets funding.
Attacks on technicians were also addressed. “It is a great concern that our technicians are being attacked. These are ordinary working men. They are unarmed and don’t have skills to fend off attackers,” said Cllr Sun.
He says attackers are often armed, and sometimes technicians are hospitalised as a result of assaults. Security is being intensified, but Cllr Sun said strategies cannot be shared due to the sensitivity of protecting infrastructure and technicians.