Eskom says it remains concerned about the safety of communities that may be at risk due to the escalating number of illegal connections‚ meter bypassing or tampering with and vandalism to electricity infrastructure.

The electricity provider says many power outages in different parts of the country‚ especially in Gauteng‚ are caused by overloading which is the result of illegal connections and non-payment. The power frequently goes out at about the same time on cold winter nights.

“The network overloads because too many people are trying to use a network which is designed for one household per stand. Also‚ customers who are not paying for their electricity tend to be wasteful in the way they use it.

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“Eskom install fuses or Circuit Breakers that switch off when the load gets to dangerous levels‚ thus preventing the transformer from exploding. Sometimes residents bypass these safety features and the transformer does explode. Not only is this danger‚ but these transformers may take hours or days to repair‚” Eskom says.

It adds that every year‚ innocent lives are lost as a consequence of the unsafe use of electricity‚ particularly in the form of illegal connections.

“We believe that one injury or fatality as a result of the unsafe use of electricity is one too many. We have identified that the biggest contributors to electrical accidents‚ injuries‚ and fatalities are contact with low-hanging conductors‚ unsafe connections‚ vandalism‚ illegal power connections and cable theft.

“Residents and businesses regularly connect to the Eskom network illegally‚ and not only is this dangerous for the individual making the connection‚ but it also puts the rest of the community at risk.

“In addition‚ illegal connections and electricity theft cause unnecessary power failures/outages that overstretch our resources slowing down our service delivery to legal power users. Eskom has found that most people understand that connecting illegally can be dangerous‚ but they continue to use illegal connections‚” the parastatal says.

Due to the fact that illegal users believe that they are getting “free electricity” there is no incentive for them to use electricity responsibly and efficiently‚ it adds. This leads to overloading and instability of the electricity network‚ especially during peak times.

The electricity supplier says it is doing its best to minimise incidents of faults and restoration times‚ however due to the nature of an electrical network‚ these can occur at any time.

“Eskom is busy with programmes that will need the support of the community in implementing them which would also assist in dealing with these outages.”