Where Blackouts Rule

TSHWANE: Power Outages Last an Average of 22 Hours

- Antoinette Slabbert

Despite the reduction in the amount of load shedding Eskom has subjected South Africans to since the beginning of the year, residents of Tshwane have experienced no relief.

On the contrary, they were subjected to more power interruptions between 1 January and 31 May this year than during the same period last year, when load shedding was intense.

The fact that it's now more unpredictable and lasts much longer than the two hours at a time load shedding slots makes it much worse, residents say. They are very concerned about the state of the municipal power network.

In response to questions from Moneyweb, the metro council disclosed that from January to May there were about 4,600 power interruptions per month in the city. The figure for the corresponding period last year was 4,563.

These figures include load shedding, and according to city officials it is impossible to provide the figures excluding load shedding.

Load shedding itself has improved. Eskom, during its winter outlook on the state of the power system, indicated how load shedding has decreased.

In May this year, which is not indicated on the table, there were three days of load shedding—meaning that from 1 January to 31 May South Africa has been subjected to 16 days of load shedding, compared to 83 days in the corresponding prior period.

In short, there was more than five times as much load shedding last year.

But those in Tshwane are not experiencing the reprieve—and considering that load shedding is applied in two-hour periods, each representing a separate power interruption, it is clear that the impact of load shedding on the statistics is exponential.