A power outage in Polokwane on Monday night gave rise to concerns regarding Eskom’s capacity for generating sufficient electricity for Limpopo. Power supply shortages in the Cape and Gauteng, with resultant blackouts, serve to strengthen the growing concern.

Eskom’s communications practitioner in the Vhembe District said that fears about Eskom’s capacity are unfounded.

“The blackout in Polokwane lasted for 10 minutes. The problem was on the part of the Eskom supply, but Eskom will still report on what exactly happened,” a Polokwane municipal official said. He said that the power interruptions the rest of the night occurred because of the power surge when the electricity came on and maximum power was drawn. He expressed confidence for the future.

“Polokwane has two power supply lines and is running safely. We are getting another substation in Polokwane; we have made provision.”

With frost and ice everywhere, not only scarves and mittens, but heaters and other appliances emerge from their storage places. In the Vhembe district, like elsewhere, the demand on the electrical supply rockets in the cold weather. Fears that the Department of Minerals and Energy had not planned timeously are not lessened by the fact that the department has its third new minister in 11 months and no deputy minister had been appointed.

Eskom’s Mr Ratshitanga added his cautioning voice to warnings that electricity should be used sparingly.

“Don’t switch on all appliances at once. It consumes a lot of energy and contributes to unplanned power interruptions,” he said. When asked whether the warnings do not indicate Eskom’s lack of capacity to supply enough electricity, Ratshitanga said that the advice to use electricity in moderation was to spare the consumer an electricity bill that has risen and to save the consumer’s money.

“Customers can rest assured that Eskom have sufficient capacity to continue to satisfy the demand,” Ratshitanga said.

A businessman of Thohoyandou, Mr Aubrey Mulaudzi, said that he is of the opinion that the electricity problem has been an ongoing one for the past ten years.

“They are not planning enough for the future and the population growth. The problem is that there is no company competing with Eskom. If they have competition, they will wake up,” Mulaudzi said.

Eskom’s Ratshitanga says that, from the business side, Eskom is currently strengthening the supply lines and much work had also been done by Eskom in the past year.

“There are still 70 transformers on order to be delivered and installed in the Vhembe and Mopani Districts,” Ratshitanga said.

All the while, customers are hoping that the demand this winter will not exceed the supply as they hear of cold front after cold front approaching.

In the meantime, very cold night temperatures and cold daytime conditions in the region compelled electricity consumers to step up their electricity consumption in order to stay warm.

Night-time temperatures during midweek dropped to 6ºC in Levubu, Musina and Thohoyandou, even lower than earlier in the week. In Alldays, the minimum temperature on both Monday and Tuesday was 7ºC but the maximum temperature was expected to drop from 26º to 24º. In Levubu, the maximum temperature went down from 22ºC to 21ºC, in Thohoyandou from 23ºC to 21ºC and in Musina from 25ºC to 23ºC. Musina’s daytime temperature has plummeted from Thursday, last week, when it reached 33.6ºC.