Joburg gearing up to cope with future power cuts

Johannesburg - City Power is working on new technologies to mitigate the effects of power cuts, it said on Friday.

These included installing smart meters, which would enable efficient management of electricity consumption, it said in a statement.

"Expanding the geyser control systems to more residential areas across the city and the installation of solar water heaters will contribute to the reduction of the cost of heating water."

Eskom has battled to keep the lights on since the collapse of one of its coal storage silos, diesel shortages, and maintenance issues.

On December 5, Eskom implemented stage three "load shedding". Stage one allows for up to 1000MW of the national load to be shed, stage two for up to 2000MW, and stage three for up to 4000MW.

On December 8, Eskom CEO Tshediso Matona denied that the state utility was in a crises.

Meanwhile, the City of Tshwane said rain had affected cables supplying the Onderstepoort substation, causing power outages in Onderstepoort, Vastfontein and Haakdoornboom. Technicians estimated repairs would be completed and power restored by midnight.

Save electricity,save the cost of paying electricity and ultimately save the environment.

— City Power Jhb (@CityPowerJhb) December 31, 2014