Industry protected from load-shedding after EGCCI intervention

Eastern Gauteng Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EGCCI) recently intervened when the industry began experiencing power cuts last week.
The president of the chamber, Mike du Toit, explained that the industry (especially large manufacturing factories) cannot cope with unexplained and frequent power cuts and their machinery cannot just be switched on and off.
When did the issue of load-shedding of the industry actually arise?
On May 31, we started receiving phone calls wanting to know what was happening as the industrial areas had no electricity.
We quickly established that it was load-shedding and not some other fault. We were advised by the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) that Eskom had arbitrarily taken control of load-shedding by cutting supply at the in-feed substations to Ekurhuleni.
Before that event, the industry in heavy industrial areas had protection from load-shedding based on the principle that load-shedding could be so disruptive to manufacturing that it could easily result in job losses and even the closure of certain industries.

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What action did the EGCCI take?
We immediately tried to make contact with the CoE and Eskom to make it clear that this situation was totally unacceptable to the industry as shutdowns with no warning can be extremely damaging and costly to factories of all sizes.
We made contact with anybody that we thought might be able to help us sort this issue out. I wrote a letter to organise a high-level meeting with myself and representatives of the industry. I had discussions with the DA member who represents us in parliament, Ashor Sarupen.
He put me in contact with Ghaleb Cachalia, the DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises who also wrote to André de Ruyter, supporting my request.
What was the response from Eskom?
The response from Eskom was quite quick. I received a reply from de Ruyter’s PA saying that the matter had been delegated to the general manager for Gauteng.
A day or so later I was contacted and told that a virtual meeting was to be held, whether I would mind if it included other organisations that had also requested meetings. I said that it would be fine, as long as I could invite a few CEOs from some of our largest, affected manufacturers to be present as well.
This was accepted and plans went ahead for the meeting.

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What happened at the meeting?
Representatives from other organisations present and myself explained the problem as each of us saw it. All made it clear that load-shedding at short intervals without reasonable notice was totally unacceptable to manufacturers. That position was reinforced by several large company CEOs present.
Eskom replied that they had taken control of load-shedding from CoE as the City has constantly failed to meet load-shedding targets.
They pointed out that seven of the 29 in-feed substation areas with heavy industrial areas had been returned to the control of the CoE.
Does this solve the problem?
Not really, as I pointed out that the situation in Springs was that due to the burning down of the JVA substation, a lot of the factories have been linked to the Springs Munic line, which was still under the control of Eskom.
The policy only protected factories being supplied through a temporary setup at the JVA substation. On the other side of town, a large portion of factories on the north side of Nuffield are also on the Munic line and thus also subject to load-shedding.

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Have all these problems been solved?
The floor nominated me to set up a forum with broad industry representation from Ekurhuleni, as well as Eskom and the CoE.
Since the meeting, control over the Munic line has been returned to the CoE with permission to protect the factories in Nuffield and New Era.
We are seeking protection for the factories in the Selection Park industrial area as well. I need to go ahead and set up the forum as if load-shedding becomes any worse, we will have to design other protocols that will apply to the industry instead of short intermittent load-shedding.
What about consumers?
I am afraid that I have no good news for consumers. The electricity supply system appears to be running very close to capacity and with everybody running heaters and air conditioners in this cold weather, the problem can only get tougher.
A total collapse of the system is simply too ghastly to contemplate. They cannot allow that to happen. We should learn to dress warmly inside and go easy on the electric heating.

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