Joburg residents warned of possible power cuts as cold front sets in
City Power has cautioned Johannesburg residents of looming power cuts as a powerful cold front hits the city this weekend.
Temperatures dropped on Thursday when a cold front hit Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo
Temperatures will remain low throughout the weekend.
The power utility’s spokesperson, Isaac Mangena says the increase in demand is expected to put strain onto the grid.
“With temperatures expected to go to as low minus 2 degrees this weekend, City Power expects the demand for electricity to skyrocket.
“This will also see an increase in unplanned outages caused by overloading of our network due to among others, illegal connections and switching on of unnecessary appliances.”
Temperatures set to plunge in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo
Forecaster Edward Engelbrecht says temperatures will start dropping from Thursday afternoon. "We are expecting Pretoria to be at a maximum of 18 degrees, Johannesburg at 16 degrees and Vereeniging 16 degrees. "We will see maximum dropping tomorrow morning, we expect to be below zero for most of Gauteng, the highveld of Mpumalanga and the western parts of Mpumalanga," adds Engelbrecht.
He says the system has already run into some trouble.
“We have already seen an increase in the number of outages since Friday, as people try to warm themselves up, and we anticipate that these will increase into the weekend.
“City Power would like to appeal to the residents of the City of Johannesburg to use power sparingly.”
Mangena says the power outages are not a result of load shedding.