Energy expert, Adil Nchabeleng says load reduction is essential in preventing the complete disintegration and breakdown of transformers as they were not built to cater to the current demand.
This after the City of Tshwane announced it would implement load reduction at the Soshanguve substation between 6 pm and 10 pm daily until Sunday.
The city says it’s experiencing power overload due to illegal electricity connections and an increased demand for electricity.
🔔 Reminder: Tshwane continues with load reduction in Soshanguve pic.twitter.com/Lncr0xQVWG
— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) June 16, 2024
Nchabeleng explains the need for load reduction.
“It’s not the same as load shedding. Load reduction is when a sub mini-station as well as transformers are experiencing a huge load demand. Which means the grid within the substation on the distribution side of, it is not coping and transformers are failing, which means they are either failing in terms of breaking down, burning up and everything and tripping at the same time. So, when they implement load reduction, they switch them off in order to spare the particular distribution network in that area from completely disintegrating and breaking down.”
Load reduction programme leaves Soshanguve communities frustrated:Â
