Finally, a schedule for 'power outages'

| Friday May 23, 2008 00:00

Selato said the corporation intends to distribute the schedule or the Customer Information Guides by next week covering all public places such as the corporations' customer service centres, kgotla, post offices, police stations, health facilities, stadia and others. Until then, the schedule has mainly been available through the internet to the frustration of those not connected.

The new measures come in the wake of frequent power outages that have become worse since May 9. However, the situation is not expected to ease up at least until the end of June. 

The current crisis has been brought about primarily by the shutdown of one of Botswana's major electricity suppliers, the Cahora Bassa power station. The Mozambican power utility is carrying out major maintenance that is expected to last until May 31.  Cahora has been supplying Botswana with an equivalent of 75 mega watts (MW).

Compounding the problem is the breakdown of one of the generators at the Morupule Power Station. As a result, the plant, which normally supplies 120 MW, can now only generate 90 MW. Full generation is not expected until the end of June.

Meanwhile, the BPC has noted that should the load shedding become necessary, the power utility 'will endeavour to adhere to the published load-shedding schedule in accordance with the following principles:

* Geographic areas designated on a particular day will be the first areas in  sequence to be load-shed  
* If the required load to be shed exceeds 50MW at any one time, additional 
load-shedding outside the programme (additional areas) will be carried out to balance supply and demand. 
* If, on a particular day of the week, not all load-shedding stages are executed, and if load-shedding becomes necessary on a subsequent occasion (same day of the week),   then the subsequent load-shedding shall begin with those customers who were not affected on the previous occasion, even though they may not be in the first stage(s).  
* When customers have been switched off in a stage, and no further load curtailment is required, then load curtailment shall be rotated within
customers on that day, in an endeavour to ensure that no customers are off for more than four hours. 
* The load-shedding programme is subject to review, depending on the prevailing supply and demand situation. The BPC however, maintained that load shedding is a final resort measure taken during occasions when the demand for electricity exceeds the available supply. It appealed to their customers to 'minimise the need and the extent of load shedding by using electricity efficiently and switching off those loads or appliances that are not of immediate need. Planning activities to spread the use of high-usage electrical appliances will assist by shifting demand to off-peak hours of the day'.
Below is the weekly general load-shedding schedule for the Southern Region: