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Power utility Eskom has defended its load reduction strategy.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has criticised the power utility, calling it reckless for switching off power in poor areas.
Eskom regularly implements load reduction by switching off power at certain intervals in areas where it says most people do not pay for their services.
However, Lesufi says the power outages also affect schooling in these areas.
Gauteng Eskom spokesperson Reneiloe Semenya has defended the system adding that Eskom, unfortunately, doesn’t have the infrastructure to specifically exclude schools.
“Based on the purpose to protect the network equipment in order to avoid extended power outages and the persisting high loads on the network, load reduction remains a necessary intervention to stick to. Should there be a significant change in the root causes of network overloading the area/network concerned will be excluded from load reduction and real-time monitoring will continue to ensure that we continue to safeguard the asset from a repeat failure.”
The cash-strapped entity has been implementing Stage 2 loadshedding since last Thursday.
Eskom wants to manage emergency generation reserves and identify risks to the power system.
Eskom load shedding until September:
