The power-distribution utility in South Africa\u2019s commercial capital is in talks with the state electricity company to reduce outages in the city of more than 5 million people.<\/p>\n
City Power officials proposed that the duration of the blackouts in Johannesburg be cut to two hours at a time to help businesses cope, spokesman Isaac Mangena said in an interview on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The authorities are also discussing alternative sources of energy supply, including solar and gas, as well as other initiatives, including converting street lights to solar power, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are working on is a plan to cushion our customers from the frequency of load shedding,\u201d Mangena said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently, customers are being switched off for four hours at a time. This is killing a lot of people because you have no productivity for that period. So we have looked at the viability of reducing this to two hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
State power utility Eskom is subjecting South Africa to outages that add up to as much as half a day because its dilapidated equipment can\u2019t meet demand. The blackouts cost the economy R300 billion ($15.6 billion) last year, or about 5% of gross domestic product (GDP), the company said in a briefing this month.<\/p>\n
Loadshedding is forcing small businesses to cut production time and drive up costs, impacting their profitability. A study by Nedbank, one of the nation\u2019s biggest banks, estimates that two-thirds of small firms in South Africa\u2019s townships have shed jobs because of the power cuts.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve also left City Power in \u201ca very critical state,\u201d with the company losing about R3.6 million a day because it has to constantly repair broken equipment and use additional staff to carry out load shedding, Mangena said.<\/p>\n
He said an announcement on the plan to reduce the hours of blackouts in Johannesburg is expected to be made by mid-June.<\/p>\n