Eskom: Repeated Gauteng outages due to overload and illegal connections

Eskom says that the repeated power failure in areas of Gauteng stems from an overloaded network burdened by illegal connections.

The power utility claims the network is overburdened resulting in frequent outages in the Cosmo City, Diepsloot, Ivory Park, Orange Farm, Sebokeng and Soweto areas.

Repeated power failures due to illegal connections

A statement issued by Eskom asserts that illegal connections are a major cause of damage to electrical infrastructure and therefore power outages in high population density areas.

“Eskom has noted a significant rise in network overloading resulting from illegal connections across the high-density areas of Gauteng. 

“The overloading is also apparent in areas with multiple or backyard dwellings, bypassed meters, and vandalism of electricity infrastructure.

“These illegal connections and tampering with Eskom equipment result in damages to electrical infrastructure such as transformers, mini-substations and substations in these areas.”

Eskom

Eskom has declared that they are not in a position to continually repair equipment damaged by overloading and illegal connections.

The power company have appealed to the public to report any attempts to tamper with infrastructure.

“Eskom continues to monitor the network in real-time and would like to request our customers to desist from tampering with electricity infrastructure. Eskom continues to safeguard its assets by auditing, removing illegal connections and fixing bypassed meters in an effort to protect the network.”

The power company have warned that the spectre of loadshedding is lurking for South Africans, and have urged the public to use power sparingly.

“We urge every South African to co-operate in managing electricity consumption with care to help us minimise load-shedding,” said Eskom.

Eskom urge the public to be electricity-wise

Eskom has provided the following tips to follow to reduce demand:

• Keep your morning shower short to lessen the load during the morning peak.
• Take food out of the freezer for dinner and put it in the fridge to thaw. It’ll save you from using the microwave to defrost later.
• Set air-conditioners’ average temperature at 23ºC
• Switch off your geysers over peak periods
• Use the cold water tap rather than using the geyser every time
• Set your swimming pool pump cycle to run twice a day, three hours at a time
• At the end of the day, turn off computers, copiers, printers and fax machines at the witch.

Eskom apologised for the inconvenience of outages and urged customers to remain patient and to treat all electrical installations as live and dangerous at all times. 

For information and updates, please call the Eskom Contact Centre on 08600 37566.