City Power launches Winter Plan to avert unplanned outages

Winter is a few weeks away and the last days of Autumn start and end with a chill that is an indication of colder weather still to come. During the Winter season the City’s network is prone to outages in most if not all areas supplied by City Power. This is mainly due to an increase in the demand for electricity usage resulting in overloading of the network as well as equipment failure. In an effort to reduce the number of unplanned outages experienced by our customers, a Winter Plan has been prepared.

The Winter Plan’s key focus will be on areas of the network that experience repeated outages on the same day or week. It also prioritizes resources to address these challenges. Amongst other efforts this includes equipping technicians with fast moving spares, strategic material and consumables in the event of unplanned outages.

We also plan to increase the number of technicians attending to outages in our areas of supply. More teams will be dispatched to attend to outages as well as to respond to emergency calls. The Plan has already driven us to proactively replace and repair sections of cables that have contributed to repeated outages.

In as far as possible aluminium cables are used which have no value to thieves thereby further ensuring an uninterrupted electricity supply. Constant monitoring of the network, maintenance and new technologies are part of ongoing efforts to reduce outages.

The effectiveness of the Winter Plan is not only dependent upon measures put into place but also requires cooperation from all of us that use electricity. This being Energy Month as May is commonly known, City Power wants to raise awareness about saving energy. We urge everyone to use this month as a stepping stone to becoming more conscious of saving electricity everyday as Winter approaches and continue to do so regularly throughout. This can be done in a number of simple and cost-effective ways.

Consider alternatives and less intensive heating methods such as gas, compact fluorescent lighting, solar water heaters and or heat generation through conventional fireplaces. We are relying on our customers to make the necessary adjustments to save electricity in their households. This in turn will decrease overloading of the network, prevent unplanned outages while easing pressure off the grid especially during winter.

As part of saving energy, it is important to note these key principles of energy efficiency:

• Switch off electricity when not in use
• Use or change to energy efficient appliances and lighting (CFL’s, LED lights, infrared heaters, etc.)
• Use alternative energy sources (solar heating and gas)

Save on your electricity bill by doing the following:

• Setting your pool pump to run for shorter periods.
• Switch off lights in unoccupied rooms.
• Use electric blankets to pre-heat the bed for approximately 15 minutes (Do not sleep with electric blankets on).
• Dress warmly and use fleece blankets.
• Preferably change your curtains to thicker and dark colours that retain more heat.
• Make use of a geyser blanket.
• Use appropriate sized pot for each plate when you’re cooking, using a small pot on a large plate will waste electricity.
• Let plenty of warm sunlight in during the day by keeping curtains open wide, but close them as soon as the sun sets to seal in all the warmth.
• Use or change to oil heaters or wall heaters (open spaces are more difficult to heat).

-Ends-