This as NERSA approved guidelines for the implementation of load shedding up to stage 16. The energy regulator says this is just a guideline for planning purposes for Eskom.

NERSA says stage 16 load shedding will only be implemented if 80% of the load demand is not met. If implemented, the country will be left in the dark for about 32 hours.

The regulator says many strategic plans come into play before load shedding is implemented.

Therefore, it is highly unlikely that stage 16 will be put into effect. It says it wants to apologize to South Africans for the misunderstanding. “We apologise for earlier where we perhaps, did not quite understand the concern, we thought it was an obvious one, which Mr Padayachee indicated that it’s just a scenario-based system that indicates in the event something like this happens do you have the tools that are available to the system operator.

“But quite frankly it looked like the message out there is that we are saying that this situation is imminent which was not the message we’re trying to communicate,” says Nhlanhla Gumede, Full time Regulator Member at NERSA.

The National Rationalised Specifications Association of South Africa says in the unlikely event of stage 16, South Africans will be load shed virtually the entire day.

NERSA says, that before load shedding is implemented, the system operator goes through many stages. In some cases, large industries self-load shed as per agreement with the power utility. “A customer would experience 32 hours of load shedding and why 32 hours? You may say we have 24 hours in the day, but you will note from the document that it’s on a 32-hour cycle.

“So, without going into detail, you’ll virtually be load shed the entire day, so that’s the prognosis post 8-16,” says Vally Padayachee, Chairman, the Management Committee of the NRS Association of South Africa.

Nersa has urged consumers to familiarize themselves with the guidelines on what to do post-load shedding, to avoid power trips.

--SABC--