Free State dorpie becomes South Africa’s first ‘smart town’

The small arts town of Clarens in the Free State has become South Africa’s first ‘smart town’ through a new app-based load management project with power utility Eskom.

Eskom announced on Tuesday (23 January) that the town – known for being a haven for artists and artisans, with a tranquil village atmosphere and surrounding natural beauty – has become the first town in South Africa to manage its own electricity load through load curtailment.

“As Clarens is already gearing up for smart city initiatives with smart metering and electrical vehicle charging stations already installed, as well as a well-diverse spread of small-scale embedded generators (SSEGs), Eskom was eager to help Clarens residents in the evolution from an art town to a smart town,” Eskom said.

While load curtailment itself is not a new concept – as many municipalities and large customers countrywide have long been managing their own demand during times of supply constraints – Clarens was the first to pilot the concept of ‘group curtailment’,where a community manages its own load curtailment.

“Group curtailment requires the collaborative efforts of the entire community to reduce load when requested. Once a system emergency is declared, Eskom gives a nominated group coordinator two hours’ notice of load curtailment that should be sustained throughout load shedding,” Eskom said.

“The group coordinator directs the community who decides which equipment will be switched off to achieve the required demand reduction.”

During curtailment stages 1 to 4, cooperating customers are required to reduce demand by 10% to 20%.

Unlike load shedding, where the customers are switched off as per their schedule, load curtailment must be sustained. Eskom continuously monitors the reduction in demand of its curtailment customers, as three instances of non-compliance will result in the reinstatement of normal load shedding.

To effectively manage the town’s curtailment efforts, an application signalling customers that curtailment has been called was developed. This acts as a trigger for residents to set their load reduction plans in motion.

According to Gert Kruger, Clarens’ group coordinator, who is also an owner and director of Augos, the company responsible for the development of the application, a meter was installed at the town’s main point of supply.

Every 60 seconds, the meter sends real-time statistics of the town’s current demand, prompting further reduction if required.

“For a town that depends on tourism, not being subjected to load shedding is life-changing. Although the success depends on the voluntary participation of residents and businesses, we have the community’s support as everyone benefits from cooperating,” Kruger said.

“Feedback from visitors, restaurants and accommodation establishments is very positive and without the noise of generators, tourists can enjoy Clarens’ natural beauty.”

Eskom said that, so far, the project is successful, with residents being able to sufficiently reduce and manage their load, making the Clarens project a benchmark for similar projects to be rolled out in other areas of the country.

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