Old infrastructure, cable theft, vandalism and whispers of blame: The state of Joburg's Stage 4

• Parts of Johannesburg experienced extended outages following scheduled load shedding.
• Several of the city's substations controlled by Eskom experienced delayed restoration, according to City Power.
• Stage 4 load shedding is stretching the City's resources, given the frequency of having to turn off and turn on power.

Parts of Johannesburg have been experiencing extended outages following stage 4 load shedding, with the city's resources stretched due to the frequency of turning electricity supply on and off.

According to a statement issued by City Power on Wednesday night, the Randburg substation - which feeds the suburbs Bromhof, Northriding and Randpark Ridge - as well as substations at Bryanston, Fontainebleau, Northriding, Beyers Naude, Harley, Windsor and Morningside - experienced delays.

"Several of our substations controlled from Eskom’s side were since [the] afternoon delayed to be restored, sending panic to our customers," the statement read.

The City had been working with Eskom to address delays. On Thursday morning, power was restored to the Randburg substation.

"It must be mentioned that Stage 4 of the load shedding is really stretching our resources because of the frequency of switching on and off, with some done manually," the statement read.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said that load shedding is generally not good for the city's infrastructure. "It puts a strain on some of our already aged infrastructure. Electricity infrastructure was never meant to be switched on and off at regular intervals."

Mangena said the grid in Johannesburg is not at risk of total collapse.

City Power is also working to restore power to Lenasia, south of Johannesburg, after a pylon fell earlier this week.

It appears tensions are running high between the two utilities - this with City Power pinning much of the blame for the delays on Eskom.

A spokesperson from the South African Municipal Workers' Union said City Power employees are working at "full force" to restore power, adding that stage 4 load shedding was declared by government.

Eskom issued a statement indicating that it is attending to the increased supply interruptions affecting its customers across Gauteng. There are "multiple network faults" exacerbated by network overloading, illegal connections, meter bypasses, cable theft, vandalism and unauthorised operations on electricity infrastructure, the statement read.

City Power is trying to shield its customers from Stage 2 and Stage 1 load shedding, given that it has signed a power purchase agreement with independent power producer Kelvin, providing it with as much as 220 MW of additional power. Last weekend it refused to implement load shedding, but then made an about-turn on Monday, in the interests of protecting the national grid from total collapse, according to a joint statement from both Eskom and City Power.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan at a briefing on Wednesday said that Eskom should not be treated as a "political football". "Whatever our frustrations are... with the performance of the coal power stations, it is important that we are focused on getting the operations right at Eskom," said Gordhan.

Load shedding jumped to stage 4 on Wednesday, this as Eskom experienced more unplanned breakdowns at several of its stations. Gordhan said load shedding would be downgraded to stage three, with some 2000 MW expected return to service on Wednesday night. There have been no updates from Eskom in that regard.

Eskom's Energy Availability Factor - a measure of power that can be fed to the grid - is way below the optimum level of 85%. Eskom's target for the EAF is at 70%, but it is currently hovering around 64% and 65%.

Meanwhile, both Gordhan and Eskom executives have vowed to keep lights on for the municipal elections, and the counting processes thereafter.