The City of Ekurhuleni started rotational load shedding to areas affected by the six-day power outage at 9am on Thursday morning, which will continue until 5pm.
According to the metro this is a straight forward change over to give power to those that were not restored from midnight.
The City said it would try to keep more customers on since it is off-peak load demand. There will be customers that will not he switched off.
“We are working towards restoring everyone by this afternoon.”
In the meantime. the National Energy Regulator of SA (NERSA) had been approached by the DA to investigate whether the City of Ekurhuleni had transgressed any of its licence obligations during the current power outage in Kempton Park.
Michael Waters, MP, wrote to chairman Jacob Modise on Wednesday.
The City of Ekurhuleni had missed at least three deadlines to restore power to the community. The first deadline given by the metro was at 6pm on Tuesday.
Waters wrote: “As you can imagine the residents are, understandably, boiling mad as their lives are being disrupted and their food is rotting.”
He said the stale excuse of cable theft did not wash, for the following reasons:
1. The City has provided no proof of such cable theft.
2. The said cable was taken from a wetland.
3. And if the cable was indeed stolen, was this reported to the police and if so, what is the case number?
“I request your office to investigate this matter in order to determine whether the City has transgressed any of its licence obligations and/or electricity regulations for compulsory norms and if so, which specific licence obligations and/or regulations?
“In addition I would like to know what action you have or will be taking against the City in this regard.
As the licence agreement between NERSA and the City is not in the public domain, Waters also requested that the investigation included the following;
1. Whether regular maintenance is being conducted at all substations throughout the metro, as well as on the electricity network in order to prevent regular and extended outages.
2. Whether the City is obliged (under its licence agreement) to ensure electricity supply from other substations or from mobile substations when residents are without power for days.
“According to an interview on Radio 702 on May 12 the head of the electricity department, Mr Mark Wilson, admitted that the City had one mobile substation but failed to use it,” Waters added.
