Eskom tackling new crisis worse than load-shedding

Eskom has made progress in ending load reduction, with the utility ensuring that over 100,000 customers are no longer affected during peak periods. 

These customers are among the first to be targeted as part of Eskom’s programme to eliminate load reduction by 2027, with it estimating that 1.69 million customers are affected across all nine provinces. 

Load-shedding is a national, planned power cut due to insufficient generation capacity, while load reduction targets specific, overloaded local areas to prevent equipment failure, cutting power in those neighbourhoods for short periods to protect the grid.

While load-shedding manages overall demand, load reduction protects local infrastructure, like transformers, from localised overconsumption during peak times. 

The sheer number of people affected doesn’t show the full scale of the crisis, with experts and Electricity Minister Kgosienstho Ramokgopa saying it is more difficult to resolve than load-shedding. 

This is because of the distributed nature of the crisis, with load reduction occurring at a local level throughout the country as a result of inadequate distribution infrastructure. 

As a result, Eskom has to work on resolving infrastructure challenges across the country. In comparison, load-shedding was a concentrated challenge at the utility’s power stations. 

Ramokgopa has said that the challenge of load reduction keeps him up at night, with it requiring collaboration between his ministry, Eskom, and municipalities. 

Due to provision obligations in South Africa’s constitution, municipal governments play a key role in the electricity sector, distributing around 40% of all electricity. 

Municipal governments primarily serve households and small businesses, with the remaining 60% of users being served by Eskom, which caters to large users and municipalities without a network. 

This complicates efforts to tackle load reduction as it requires municipalities to invest in their electricity distribution infrastructure, which many have failed to do over the past decade. 

“It is a failure at the level of Eskom and municipalities to provide sufficient infrastructure and capacity to accommodate the load growth in particular areas,” Ramokgopa said. 

A major driver of this has been the proliferation of informal settlements in parts of South African cities and rural areas, creating greater levels of demand that were not planned for. 

“We have not kept up with that by renovating and expanding the capacity of distribution infrastructure in parts of South Africa,” Ramokgopa said. 

Eskom’s plan 

Eskom has made strong progress in addressing load reduction since it was made a priority by the minister, with it implementing a phased programme to eliminate it by 2027. 

“Although the power system remains stable and generation capacity continues to exceed demand, illegal connections and meter tampering persist, causing infrastructure damage and posing serious safety risks,” Eskom said in a statement. 

“In response, Eskom continues to implement load reduction as a temporary measure in high-risk areas to protect both communities and the electricity network.”

Eskom has begun targeting 971 feeders across its network, with it estimating that this will benefit around 1.69 million customers across all provinces. 

This makes up a substantial portion of Eskom’s total customer base, which is around 7.2 million households, businesses, and government entities. 

Key interventions as part of this programme are the rollout of smart meters, the integration of Distributed Energy Resources, and the expansion of Free Basic Electricity support.

One thing Eskom’s plan does not touch on is the impact of rising electricity prices on South Africans and how it has pushed many to seek alternatives to legitimate sources of energy. 

As electricity prices have risen in South Africa, it has become steadily less affordable for a growing share of the population. 

Thus, some of them have turned to illegally connecting to the grid and preventing Eskom and law enforcement agencies from cutting their connections. 

This results in significant revenue losses for municipalities and Eskom, robbing them of vital funds to invest in infrastructure upgrades and maintenance. 

More importantly, it also adds unexpected demand to the grid in particular areas, threatening to overload local infrastructure. 

Without lower electricity prices and the provision of infrastructure to peri-urban areas and informal settlements, this problem is likely to proliferate. 

There is also a limit to how much Eskom can achieve in this regard without the fundamental turnaround of many of South Africa’s municipalities. 

These entities have long neglected the necessary infrastructure maintenance and upgrades, resulting in failures at a local level. 

Municipalities in South Africa have also been the victims of financial mismanagement, once again limiting infrastructure investment and resulting in surging debt owed to Eskom.