Buffalo City Metro holds frank discussions with business community about load shedding
The Buffalo City Metro held frank discussions with its business community on Friday, 7 February to discuss load shedding and its implications to the cost of doing business in the Metro.

The City is trying by all means to accommodate businesses during the load shedding period and avoid their bottom lines being severely affected as this has negative effects on the economy.

The meeting which was facilitated by the Border Kei Chamber of Business was held with the manufacturing sector with over 30 local, national and international companies and organisations in attendance. Similar engagements have been held with the retail sector.

The Municipality presented to businesses the current state of load shedding and explained the various stages together with the agreements it has with Eskom.

The Municipality also offered business an option to work together and be part of its curtailment program in order to help reduce usage.

Buffalo City Metro has adopted a 19 Block System, with each block equating to 5% of Load Reduction shed for a 3 Hour Period. These came into effect as from 01 February 2020.

Other critical changes with the approval of the NRS048-9 are that:

* Stages have increased from four stages in order to manage shedding efficiently.

* The load reductions per stages has changed so each stage would equate to a 5% reduction (in stage1-5%, Stage 2-10%, Stage 3-15%..etc)

* The total load controlled by the municipal control centre has increased from 20 percent to 40 percent in the stages.

* The Load Shedding Matrix has changed to include Stages, Time and Day of the Month.

Due to load shedding having a negative effect on the economy with industry, a curtailment program has been put in place for industry that are prepared to assist with load reduction during the Load Shedding period.

2020-02-10