City Power urges people to find other ways to keep warm, as power usage soars

As cold weather ushers in winter, City Power has urged residents to reduce electricity use amid an “increase in energy consumption levels”.

The entity made the appeal on Sunday hours after Eskom warned of overloading transformers in areas such as Soweto due to the colder weather.

City Power said: “The worst of the cold weather is expected from Monday through to Tuesday. Customers are urged to use electricity sparingly as failure to do so may result in further energy demand, which will put a severe strain on the network. We are experiencing high call volumes from customers across our areas of supply.

“Though we have our systems and resources in place, we need customers to assist in ensuring the network remains operating at its normal rate,” City Power said.

“City Power urges customers to reduce the rate at which they are using electricity. With temperatures dropping, we observe energy consumption levels increasing at a very high rate.”

The entity said a sharp increase in electricity demand had exerted “unbearable pressure on the network and resources”.

It singled out the following areas as being of concern: Alexandra, Bryanston, Fleurhof, Florida, Freedom Park, Hospital Hill, Kliptown, Klipfontein, Lawley, Matholesville, Mayibuye, Mountain View, Mulbarton, Naturena, Northcliff, Pennyville, Pimville Zone 9, Prescast, Princess, Slovo, Thembelihle, Tshepisong and Vlakfontein.

“We continue the appeal to our customers to use energy efficiently to prevent overloading the network. Network overload may cause equipment to fail which will result in prolonged outages.

“We urge customers to use alternative methods to keep warm and refrain from illegal connections and meter tampering as these contribute significantly to overloading the network.”

TimesLIVE