Clarens becomes SA’s first ‘smart town’ as it manages load demand during power cuts

The town of Clarens in the Free State has become the first in the country where residents manage their own electricity demand during load-shedding.

This was revealed by Eskom in a statement released on Tuesday.

The power utility said: “The arts town has become the first town in the country where residents are now equipped to manage their own load through load curtailment.

“As Clarens is already gearing up for smart city initiatives with smart metering and electrical vehicle charging stations already installed, as well as a well-diverse spread of small-scale embedded generators (SSEGS), Eskom was eager to help residents in the evolution from an art town to a smart town.”

Explaining how it would work, Eskom said during curtailment stages 1-4, “co-operating 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,” it said.

The utility explained that it continuously monitors the situation during this time as “three instances of noncompliance will result in the reinstatement of normal load-shedding”.

“To effectively manage the town's curtailment efforts, 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.

“Every 60 seconds, the meter sends real-time statistics of the town's current demand, prompting further reduction if required.”

Clarens' group co-ordinator Gert Kruger, also an owner and director of the company responsible for the development of the application, explained that a meter for this was installed at the town's main point of supply.

Adding to this was Bibi Bedir, Eskom senior manager for retail in the Free State, who said: “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. The concept of 'group curtailment' — where a community manages its own load curtailment — was, however, piloted in Clarens.

“Group curtailment requires the collaborative efforts of the entire community to reduce load when requested.

“Once a system emergency is declared, Eskom gives a nominated group co-ordinator two hours' notice of load curtailment that should be sustained throughout load-shedding. The group co-ordinator directs the community, whose members decide which equipment will be switched off to achieve the required demand reduction.”

Eskom's statement comes months after the utility instructed another small Free State town to stop implementing a system of “voiding” during load-shedding.

Earlier last year, Rural Free State, contracted to manage the Mafube local municipality’s electricity network, implemented a trial solar project aimed at reducing the effect of load-shedding in Frankfort through a system of “voiding”.

This allows the company to manage the town’s own load-shedding schedule, a move that was reportedly initially approved by Eskom. This resulted in the town having fewer outages, with the alternative power produced by a private solar facility powering the city during scheduled load-shedding hours.

The project was implemented on a three-month trial basis in February after an apparent agreement with Eskom, but the state utility backtracked a month later, saying what the company put forward is not what it had understood it to be.

The matter ended up in the Johannesburg high court, where the company lost its urgent bid to allow it to continue the initiative until the National Energy Regulatory of South Africa (Nersa) made a decision.

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