Page 42 - Energize November 2021

VIEWS AND OPINION

Did municipalities disregard Eskom’s

call to impose load shedding?

Response to allegations by Eskom that some municipalities had ignored

instructions by Eskom to comply with load shedding instructions

by Vally Padayachee, Association of Municipal Electrical Utilities

skom recently alleged, by inference or implication, in the media that most municipal
utilities had disobeyed a request from Eskom’s system operations national control
Ecentre to “load shed” and were therefore in contravention or non-compliance of
NRS048 Part 9 (Electricity supply – Quality of supply), a Nersa approved standard.
The Association of Municipal Electrical Utilities (AMEU) will not defend any of its
municipal members which are found to be in contravention of the above-mentioned and stewardship that Eskom requires
standard. All licensed distributors are required to comply to NRS048 Part 9. However, a to protect South Africa’s economy and
proper investigation by Nersa should be undertaken to see which municipalities were in fact reputation.
non-compliant. If they are unable to do so they should
Compliance by such distributors is meant to ensure that the national grid is protected, step aside. By trying to alienate the
and South Africa is not plunged into a serious power outage. AMEU’s municipal membership and KICs
in a crisis is foolhardy. Eskom needs all the
Context in which load shedding takes place help and support it can get now to carry it
Since 2008, Eskom’s performance has deteriorated significantly, with Eskom’s energy through the crisis.
availability factor (EAF) down to approximately 65%. Last week the total outage on the The AMEU further argues that there
national system was over 50%, given nominal installed capacity of 45 GW. needs to be a Service Delivery Agreement
Eskom has been unable to deliver on its service delivery mandate effectively and (SDA) between Eskom and the municipal
efficiently for over 13 years. And in those 13 years municipalities have cooperated with utilities to regulate the supply of electricity.
Eskom to alleviate the power crisis. Municipalities purchase over 40% of Eskom’s power and
have been load shedding their customers at huge cost and discomfort. The AMEU therefore concludes that:
There are approximately 166 Nersa-licensed municipal power utilities. We understand • As part of managing the current crisis,
that most of these municipalities have requested Eskom to undertake the power switching the AMEU through SALGA and COGTA
(load shedding) on their behalf. calls on DPE, DMRE, Nersa and Eskom to
As per Eskom’s media brief, only 28 municipalities undertake their own power switching convene an urgent meeting to deal with
for load shedding. According to Eskom, only two of these 28 municipalities complied with challenges and get to the root cause(s)
NRS 048 part 9. Hence 93% of the said 28 municipalities did not comply. of the ongoing Eskom generation units’
Eskom also reported that 45% of the Key Industrial Customers (KICs) complied, which breakdowns.
means that 55% did not comply. These significant non-compliance figures make us question • It is the AMEU’s view that the time
why this is so. Could it be that Eskom’s instruction to load shed resulted in these so-called is now ripe for decisive and bold
defaulting KICs and municipalities not complying? The communication regarding the load leadership in addressing the power crisis
shedding instruction should also be investigated by Nersa. and to give the country the confidence
The AMEU calls on the regulator to investigate Eskom’s allegations of non-compliance that the industry is attending to these
and make its findings public. challenges.
We believe that Eskom was disingenuous and irresponsible by publicly pronouncing • The AMEU also calls on the Eskom
on the non-compliance of said KICs and municipalities. By adopting a media narrative and leadership – as a matter of priority
storyline of intentionally “naming and shaming” (by inference or implication) the so-called – to publicly retract its statements
defaulting municipalities and KICs, it seems that Eskom is seeking to deflect attention from and comments on non-compliant
itself and blame the power crisis on others including the municipalities and KICs. municipalities and KICs until Nersa has
We are in a serious power crisis, and we urge the Eskom leadership to stop playing fully investigated the circumstances,
politics for the overall benefit of South Africa Incorporated. The need for electricity allegations, etc., and submitted a report
underpins all sectors in South Africa Inc. on its findings.
Eskom needs to focus on the urgent task of addressing its internal challenges (13 years
of mismanagement, supply and distribution problems, corruption, etc.), and resist shifting Contact Vally Padayachee, AMEU,
the blame to its customers. Its leadership must and should provide the type of leadership Phone 083 297-2287, vally@vdw.co.za

energize | November/December 2021 | 40