Publications
Partners
The impact of load shedding will be a thing of the past in the town of Clarens, following the transition to load curtailment. This concept is designed by the potential to reduce the power demand or electrical energy usage during the peak load periods.
The transition paves the way for residents to adopt smart city initiative with smart metering for residents of the tourist-attracting town. Eskom aided Clarens’ residents in the evolution from an art town to a smart town. Bibi Bedir, Eskom’s senior manager for retail in the Free State, said the concept was piloted in the same town before installation.
Bedir said the town already boasts an electrical vehicle charging station installed, as well as a well-diverse spread of small-scale embedded generators (SSEGs).
“Load curtailment is not a new concept as many municipalities and large customers countrywide have long been managing their own demand during times of supply constraints,” Bedir explains. According to her, the arts town of Clarens has become the first town in South Africa where residents are now equipped to manage their own load through load curtailment.
To effectively manage the town’s curtailment efforts, she said an application signalling customers that curtailment has been called, was developed. “This acts as a trigger for residents to set their load reduction plans in motion. During curtailment stages 1 to 4, cooperating customers are required to reduce demand by 10% to 20%. Unlike load shedding where the customers are switched off as per their schedule, load curtailment must be sustained,” Bedir explains.
Gert Kruger, Clarens’ group coordinator and director of the company responsible for the development of the application, said a meter was installed at the town’s main point of supply. “Every 60 seconds, the meter sends real-time statistics of the town’s current demand, prompting further reduction if required. “For a town that depends on tourism, not being subjected to load shedding is life changing. Although the success depends on the voluntary participation of residents and businesses, we have the community’s support as everyone benefits from cooperating,” said Kruger.
