PORT ELIZABETH - ALL-NEW LOADSHEDDING SCHEDULES ANNOUNCED BY NELSON MANDELA BAY MUNICIPALITY

The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality has announced changes to its load-shedding schedule, with plans to lessen the burden on domestic users and start cutting power to industry on stages 5 to 8.

This is according to electricity and energy executive director Luvuyo Magalela.

Magalela said numerous factors had been taken into account during the evaluation process.

The new schedules will take effect from Monday.

“When load-shedding first started in 2008, we took a conscious decision not to switch off industrial areas to avoid major disruptions that can lead to job losses.

“The unemployment rate in Nelson Mandela Bay is above 30% and a major cause for concern.

“We had sessions with the business sector to keep them up to date regarding load-shedding and businesses in turn implemented systems to use less electricity. For that, we are grateful.

“Towards the end of last year, we were obligated by Eskom to add additional stages to the four we had in place.

“A document, compiled by various role players such as the SA Local Government Association, Eskom, Nersa, Grid Code Advisory Committee, NRS Committee and local government institutions, was also improved on.

“This document serves as a national guideline on how load-shedding should be implemented.

“In addition, we conducted social media polls on Twitter and Facebook to allow our consumers to have their say,” Magalela said.

“With all these factors in mind, we made numerous changes to our schedules and groups.

“From Monday, March 2, these changes will be in place.

“Domestic groups will increase from eight to 19 with additional suburbs added.

“Industrial groups will increase from eight to 11.

“Originally, we calculated the schedules equitably over an eight-day cycle.

“Our new schedule is calculated over a cycle of 19 days with a reduction in the number of times a group is shed.

“This means that domestic groups will not be shed for longer than two hours at a time.

“Furthermore, we calculated the cycle for industrial groups over 11 days and only industrial groups will be shed for four hours at a time, from now on,” Magalela said.

via - HERALDLIVE