City Power exempts essential services from load shedding

These includes the bulk water treatment plants at Hursthill, Lenasia Treatment Works, and Rand Water's Robertville transit water pump station in Roodepoort amongst others.

The utility says this is aimed at addressing the water supply crisis in some areas of the city.

This follows a water outage at the Eikenhof pump substation that was caused by a lightning strike last week, leaving thousands of residents without water in Johannesburg's northern suburbs.

The exemption which is expected to start on Suday 17 March will also include selected businesses.

"Most of the city’s water and sanitation reticulation systems rely on electricity, with pump stations at treatment works requiring constant uninterrupted power supply to operate optimally," says the utility's Isaac Mangena. 

"The continuous loadshedding often interrupts these operations, fourteen other Joburg Water's sites have been identified for the exclusion with alternative supply projects about to start across the city."

"The other factor that compelled the entity to make these adjustments is the technical changes as the reconfiguration and refurbishment of the network continues.

Mangena says they are considering additional applications from other businesses seeking exemption.

"Load curtailment agreements mean that large power users and business customers who qualify will be excluded from loadshedding on condition that they curtail their consumption and reduce it to acceptable levels should the need arise especially during higher stages of loadshedding.

"This will allow the city’s economic activities to proceed unhindered and prevent job losses while attracting investments."

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