Good news for electricity users in Joburg

The City of Johannesburg’s power utility, City Power has announced that load reduction in the metro has been suspended indefinitely with immediate effect.

The city was forced to implement load reduction—a targeted and localised form of power cuts—in mid-2024 after high usage levels in certain areas threatened to overload the system.

Load reduction is very different to load shedding.

For load shedding, if the national grid cannot meet demand, load shedding is implemented and all municipalities will have to ensure power is switched off according to a set schedule based on the stage it is set at.

Eskom recently moved to stage 3 load shedding for the first time in over 10 months due to a shortfall in supply as it replenished its emergency reserves.

With load reduction if 1,000 houses, including a shopping mall, petrol station, two shopping centres, three schools and several community facilities, are served by an 11kva substation with legal connections, there is little risk of overload, as there is sufficient capacity.

However, if there is a sudden surge in demand or an increase in illegal connections, vandalism, or cable theft, the substation is likely to become overloaded and explode.

This area would then be subject to load reduction as the installed infrastructure is not sufficient to serve the added demand from illegal activity.

In recent months, City Power intensified its efforts to cut off illegal connections and address meter tampering in these kinds of areas, which has led to a reduction in pressure on the system and grid.

“Moreover, these actions have prompted many customers to approach us for legal reconnections, leading to a more responsible use of electricity as they now pay for the services they consume,” the utility said.

In what it calls a ‘de-loading’ of the system, City Power has reduced the stress on its high and medium voltage electrical networks.

There were positive strides made during the prepaid meter rollover as well.

During the recent Token Identifier (TID) conversion from KRN1 to KRN2, the city was able to initiate a “thorough normalisation process” of its meters.

“This initiative has played a crucial role in stabilising electricity consumption and supply across the city, further reinforcing our ability to suspend load reduction measures.”

However, the city warned that, although the suspension of load reduction is indefinite, any change in consumer behaviour—such as a spike in high electricity consumption, illegal connections, or meter tampering—could bring it back.

This could happen at short or even no notice, it said.

Power crisis continues

The six months of load reduction in the City of Joburg serves as a stark reminder that South Africa’s power crisis is far from over, with many metros and municipalities facing the same problems related to illegal connections and electricity theft.

While national power utility Eskom has managed to keep the lights on—barring a temporary setback over the past weekend—residents in cities across the country will still be accustomed to frequent power outages.

This is because decades of corruption and wasteful spending at the local government level have led to neglected infrastructure, insufficient maintenance investment, and a growing debt to Eskom.

The utility recorded over R85 billion in municipal debt in its latest financial year and expects it to reach as high as R110 billion by the end of March 2025.

Eskom also uncovered huge problems with illicit prepaid electricity tokens on its network, which have exacerbated the problems.