Eskom in the Eastern Cape has gone live with the piloting of Load Limiting in Bedford under Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality last week, February 15.
Bedford became the second town in the province to be added to the pilot, following the recent, successful activation in Adelaide within the same municipality.
Eskom decided to activate load limiting as part of its electricity Demand Side Management (DSM) initiatives being implemented across the country.
The project is focusing on selected customers with electricity smart metres.
“Electricity Load Limiting through smart metres is being implemented to better balance the supply and demand of electricity on the grid during Stages 1 to 4 of loadshedding, allowing customers to continue to use essential appliances with the capacity of up to 10 Amperes”, said Eskom Cape Coastal Cluster general manager, Mbulelo Yedwa.
Customers in Bedford that are in networks with high smart metre penetration will not be load shed, but load limited, up to Stage 4.
An hour before the start of loadshedding, these customers in selected pilot areas will be prompted to reduce their consumption from 60 Amperes to 10 Amperes by sending a message to the Customer Interface Unit (CIU) of the smart meter.
Customers will also be notified by text message.
If the customer load is still above 10 Amperes, the smart meter will automatically make two more attempts, 30 seconds apart. After three failed attempts, the next reset will be in 30 minutes.
It is the responsibility of the customer to reduce consumption by switching off non-essential appliances, and only keep connected essential appliances up to a maximum of 10 Amperes for the duration of the load limiting period.
This initiative will reduce the impact of loadshedding on customers.
The benefits of the project include, but are not limited to, the following:
. Customers will still be able to use essential appliances during load limiting such as lights, TV, cellphone chargers, fridges, and security.
. No more delayed restoration of supply after loadshedding due to failure of equipment.
. Avoid theft and vandalism of Eskom infrastructure.
. Protect equipment fatigue from repetitive switching.
. Reduction in cable faults.
More information on Load Limiting can be obtained by contacting Eskom at loadlimiting@eskom.co.za
