City Power raid Motswaledi informal settlement that is situated behind Chris Hanni Baragwanath hospital and as a result of the illegal electrical connections the hospital is affected by power outages and explosions on the substation. Picture: Timothy Bernard/ Independent Newspapers
Since 2008, load shedding has been used in South Africa to protect the grid's integrity, following rolling blackouts in 2007.
On Monday, June 10, City Power introduced a new method of stabilising electricity demand while ensuring the integrity of the grid, called load reduction.
Load reduction is set to occur in areas with high electricity usage. City Power stated their intention to cut electricity in homes where the grid is under severe strain, aiming to reduce the load at substations with higher consumption and those at risk of failure.
The implementation of load reduction occurs from 4am. to 10am and 6pm to 10pm.
This schedule targets high-density areas and suburbs with high usage levels that could overload the electrical equipment maintaining the grid.
Load shedding differs from load reduction in that it involves a total power cut from all designated areas, with time zones varying according to a set of stages that could extend over one day or more. In contrast, load reduction affects only areas with high usage, resulting in temporary shutdowns.
The country has gone a record seventy-two days without experiencing load shedding, a feat last achieved between December 2021 and February 2022. Despite this record, City Power decided on load reduction after efforts to encourage citizens to lower energy consumption failed.
Some speculate about the timing of load reduction.
Hector Kgotsi remarked, “The load reduction only happening after the elections is very suspicious. Maybe the government removed load shedding just so we would vote for them, but we all saw something like this happening after elections.”
It appears that load reduction targets communities that waste and misuse energy, leaving those that consume less energy unaffected.
IOL