As loadshedding slowly becomes part of every South African’s life, it has become our responsibility to learn to better respond to and cope with it. Aside from the inconveniences that loadshedding causes, there are also concerns about its impact on consumer’s electronic devices and the municipality’s infrastructure.
As electricity supply is restored following loadshedding or an unplanned outage, electrical surges may occur due to the switching nature of the electricity distribution system. These surges may be excessive such that appliances and electronic devices cannot withstand resulting in damage. It is often encountered that after loadshedding, the electrical system trips multiple times due to overloading on what is termed an inrush current that triggers the system protection trip and close multiple times resulting in nuisance tripping and sometimes disruption of computing systems.
It is for these reasons that Mogale City’s Energy Services pleads with residents and businesses operating in the city to help reduce the risk of power nuisance tripping by switching off their electronic devices and electrical appliances before or during a scheduled loadshedding to minimise the risk of damage and nuisance trips.
Residents and businesses are urged to switch off electrical appliances such as geysers, air conditioners, underfloor heating and pool pumps prior to loadshedding and leave some lights on to indicate when power supply is restored. The constant tripping not only extends outage times for residents which is sometimes mistaken for extended loadshedding but also puts pressure on our technical teams in establishing reasons for tripping.
We therefore appeal to businesses and residents to try adhering to these guidelines not only to assist the municipality but also save ourselves from repairs costs and purchase new electrical appliances.
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