MOSSEL BAY NEWS - "When we watch over the bay and see the lights on in Mossel Bay while we suffer the load shedding, we as residents of Little Brak, Tergniet and Fraaiuitsig get agitated," a resident said at a community meeting arranged by ward councillors Anton Dellemijn and Annatjie Janse van Rensburg (both ward five).
The meeting was very well attended by residents and the respective ratepayers' associations.
Why certain areas are not being affected by electricity cuts, while others experience load shedding was but one of the questions the Mossel Bay Municipality's senior manager: electricity supply Morné Olivier had to answer when he addressed the residents on Tuesday evening, 3 March in the community hall packed to capacity.
Olivier made it clear the decision to implement load shedding rested solely with Eskom, and that the 66kV networks were switched off at the Eskom Proteus and Blanco substations according to a predetermined plan.
"The municipality does not switch the electricity supply on or off, neither does the municipality decide which areas should be on or off," Olivier said.
"The Voorbaai (Intake) substation and associated feeders are not switched off by Eskom, as this supply must remain on due to the critical load to the PetroSA tank farm and related installations in the Voorbaai area. This is an agreement as per clauses in NRS 048-9, which indicates that refineries, fuel pipelines and associated loading and off-loading depots should be excluded from emergency load reduction requirements.
By virtue of having the same source of supply as this critical load, there are therefore parts of the municipal network that do not undergo load shedding. As a result, the central business district, as well as portions of suburbs such as Da Nova, Voorbaai, Bay View, Diaz Beach, D'Almeida and Heiderand, are not affected by load shedding.
The meeting was extremely well attended.
This also provides for uninterrupted electricity supply to both hospitals in Mossel Bay, although this is not a key consideration for keeping the electricity supplied to the area as hospitals have to provide for their own standby electricity.
"The municipality does not perform any load curtailment or switching on of any of its secondary feeders as this would involve intensive manual switching operations with additional costs for the municipality," Olivier said.
Olivier also explained the Mossel Bay Municipality is undertaking a multi-year electrical project of approximately R15m in the Midbrak area. This work includes upgrading of the Little Brak substation and of the overhead lines between the Little Brak substation, the Midbrak substation and Fraaiuitsig, to change the network voltage from 22kV to 11kV.
Construction work will require the network to be switched off at times in the coming months, at times for periods of up to eight hours. Residents will, however, be notified in advance of the planned dates of these outages.
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