Cape power cuts enter 4th day
2006-02-22 09:36
Cape Town - Intermittent power cuts continue to disrupt activities throughout the Western Cape, as Eskom continued "load shedding" on Wednesday in a bid to avert a wide-scale blackout.
On Wednesday thousands of people will be affected as Eskom struggles to juggle available electricity supply.
Commercial and industrial electricity users in Cape Town will also face power cuts on Wednesday, the first time since the weekend's blackouts.
"We apologise to all residents, commerce and industry. This is unavoidable as Eskom, the bulk supplier of electricity, has advised that the city will have to do without 500mW of its normal weekday consumption of 2600mW," said chief executive of the Regional Electricity Distributor Saleem Mowzer.
Domestic users have had to bear the brunt of power cuts, but given the extent of the saving needed, electricity to commercial and industrial areas will also be curtailed.
Demand exceeding supply
Mowzer said it seemed power cuts would continue until the weekend, with the situation normalising once the Koeberg nuclear power station was working optimally.
The "load shedding" took place when electricity demand was greater than supply. Supply is constrained because the Koeberg nuclear power station was not producing any electricity.
Eskom has been load shedding in the region - for two-hour periods from 06:30 to 10:30 - since Monday.
Large municipalities were also curtailing the load by running their own load shedding schedules.
Customers were warned to treat all electrical installations as live for the full duration of the interruption.
Jacob Maroga, Eskom's managing director of transmission, said the power generator took the power cuts in the Western Cape "very seriously".
Maroga said Eskom was seeking ways to optimise the supply of electricity to the region, which was dependent on Koeberg and overland power transmission lines from the north.
- SAPA