eThekwini to release new schedule as load shedding resumes

The city's head of the electricity department Maxwell Mthembu says the revised schedule will come into effect from 1 August.

"We are now asking the public to disregard any other schedule that they have received before because they are now going to receive a new one. This new one, we are exempted or we are not participating in stage 1 to 3 in load shedding declared by Eskom. 

"We will only participate in stage 4 that is going to be declared. When there is stage 5, we are going to participate and when there is stage 6 we will increase the load. Beyond stage 6, eThekwini will not participate in load shedding."

Mthembu says officials from the department met with Eskom this morning and reached an agreement on how to cut power in the city going forward.

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Since the April floods, eThekwini has been exempt from rolling blackouts to avoid putting the city's infrastructure at further risk of damage.

With the persistent energy crisis being exacerbated by a workers' strike, Mthembu says they've had to review the situation.

He says this new plan will be implemented to avoid a total collapse of the national grid. 

"Most of our substations are vulnerable we bypass a lot of protection. We are mindful that if we do touch any of our networks right now it might had a cataphoric event in terms of a load being off for a long period of time. That is why we are producing a new schedule which will be totally something new from what we have known before." 

Eskom and the municipality say they'll assess the progress regularly and to work closely to minimise risk.