The following press release has been issued by Eskom regarding the recent unplanned outage delays of power supply to customers in Onrus and surrounding areas.
On Saturday, 6 February 2021 and Wednesday, 10 February 2021, electricity supply restoration was delayed to customers in Onrus and affected surrounding areas at the end of the determined period of load shedding.
These delays were caused by planned maintenance work, which had to be completed by Eskom technicians on the Onrus electrical network.
The maintenance work created an abnormal network condition, which was further strained due to cold load problems that resulted in supply only being restored 5.5 hours and 2 hours respectively later than the allowed period of 2.5 hours of load shedding.
Cold load pickup takes place when a distribution circuit is re-energized following an extended outage, where the power demand is high enough to cause a rapid overcurrent (load surge) that may cause the electricity supply to trip.
Eskom urges customers to switch off high-energy consuming appliances, such as air conditioners, pool pumps and geysers during loadshedding to avoid the load surge. Thereafter, customers should wait at least 30 minutes before switching on air conditioners, pool pumps and geysers to avoid the possible tripping of electricity.
Following these restoration delays, Eskom implemented a few network changes to reduce the risk of future delays in power restoration after load shedding due to high load consumption.
Eskom wishes to apologise for any inconvenience caused to its customers.
Issued on 25 February 2021 by:
Western Cape Communication and Stakeholder Management, Eskom Western Cape OU
T: +27 (0)21 915 2783 or E-mail: mediadesk@eskom.co.za
