Standerton without power amid ‘increased demand’
The Lekwa Local Municipality in Mpumalanga has blamed the large-scale power outages in Standerton on illegal connections and tampered metres.
In a statement on Friday, the municipality said this has caused peak-hour demand to surpass the Eskom supply to the area.
Municipal spokesperson Lubabalo Majenge said Eskom's protection system cuts supply to the entire town when demand peaks beyond supply.
"The municipality needs to perform load management to prevent the load exceeding 60.2 MVA, as well as to keep the load as near to or even below 55 MVA."
"In order to manage the risk of system damage, the municipality has installed a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) monitoring system across the town.”
Majenge said the system monitors electricity usage in real time.
“Each has a maximum load threshold. Once the threshold is exceeded, the circuit breaker automatically trips to protect the system from damage. This results in electricity outages in specific areas.
"Unfortunately, our biggest concern is that most of the areas that are frequently affected have a high number of illegal connections and tampered (bridged) meters. These illegal activities increase electricity consumption significantly, putting the entire system under pressure."
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