Areas With The Most Load Reduction

1 min read

Load reduction occurs when Eskom intentionally cuts its electricity supply to certain areas to reduce the excess of load caused by illegal connections to the power grid. To maximise its effect, load reduction takes place during peak hours when electricity use is at its highest. These times are from 5am to 9am and from 5pm to 10pm. Whether it is fair, beneficial or just needed in order to keep our grid alive, as Eskom says, it is a reality.

When it comes to load reduction, Eskom has had frequent clashes with a handful of areas, mainly in the provinces of Kwazulu-Natal, Free State and Gauteng. The regular load reduction targets are mainly Soweto, Dannhauser, and two parts of Newcastle – Drycut and Massondale. If we look at these areas we see a common trend of recurrent social issues: overcrowding, poor housing, high unemployment, crime, poor infrastructure, environmental injustices and poor service delivery. Because of these social issues, most people in these areas are either unable to afford electricity, unable to access it for a reliable period, or reside in informal settlements where there are no electrical supply lines connected to their places of dwelling. This opens the door for criminals to create illegal connections to the electrical supply of other households in their community, or to other communities as a whole. These illegal connections then create an overload of demand, straining the grid which can cause damage to the infrastructure and endanger those living in the community. This network overloading mostly happens in high density areas, such as Soweto, Dannhauser, Drycut and Massondale.

Through our research we found that these four areas experienced load reduction an average of 31 times each in September 2021. This excludes load shedding which is the cut of electricity supply experienced by all areas in the country. Their individual data are as follows:

Soweto was by far the most affected by load reduction. They experienced load reduction 51 times in September 2021, which equates to twice a day excluding weekends.

What are your thoughts on load reduction? Are there any areas you know of that get more load reduction than the ones mentioned above? Share your thoughts by replying to this email!

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Get your load shedding schedules here: Municipal Loadshedding schedules - Distribution (eskom.co.za)

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