What is a planned power outage:

A planned outage occurs when your electricity supply is temporarily interrupted to allow SEC personnel to carry out essential maintenance/repairs on the network safely. This also allows us to make some improvements and reduce the chances of accidental power cuts. An outage of this nature is normally scheduled and announced well in advance. SEC has a responsibility to make the affected customers aware of the outage details via the mainstream media, social media or through leaflets delivered to premises. Warnings about planned power cuts are published almost every week (Fridays and weekends) in the Times of Swaziland and Swazi Observer.

Every effort is made to undertake planned outages during times when there will be least inconvenience to the customers such as weekends or when most consumers are presumably at work. Please note that in some instances, this is not always possible.  In the case of large customers, wherever possible, planned interruptions will be negotiated.

What is an unplanned power outage:

Generally, an unplanned power outage is outside of SEC’s control and may be as a result of a fault in the network. There are several major categories of faults which may occur without prior indication. Some of the common types are equipment failure, cable faults, and damage by third parties (e.g. road traffic accidents), adverse climatic conditions such as lightning, theft and vandalism to electrical infrastructure. In such situations, it is not possible to give customers prior warning.

Although SEC endeavours to keep its infrastructure in good condition, occasionally some equipment do fail in service. In the case of lightning, severe storms, theft and vandalism, SEC has very minimal control.

In the event of power interruption, our network control and dispatch centres will be notified, either automatically via our system monitoring equipment or via our 24-hour call centre. The latter is the main gateway to SEC for all the over 160 000 customers. Maintenance crews are immediately dispatched to attend to the problem. The high and medium voltage electrical networks are generally designed to provide an alternative supply to cater for most faulty situations, but when there has been severe damage an extended interruption may be experienced.

SEC is constantly striving to improve the quality and security of supply for its customers. We are always desirous of meeting your expectations.

In the event of a power outage, what should you do?

1. If you have medical support equipment that relies on power, then we advise you to:

• Have another source of power in case it goes off unexpectedly
• Make arrangements with your local clinic, hospital or GP for alternative medical care, if needed.

1. Check your trip switch by:

• Turning it off and back on again. If your power remains off, there may be a fault with a household appliance or wiring.
• Unplugging all appliances and try turning the switch back on again. If it moves back to the off position, your internal wiring may need to be checked by a qualified electrician.
• If the trip switch remains on, plug in and switch on your appliances one at a time. If the trip switch activates again when you plug in a particular appliance, then that appliance is probably faulty.

1. Check to see if any of your neighbours have lost their electricity supply.

If your trip switch has not operated and your neighbours also have no power, there may be a problem with the electricity supply in your area. Contact us on 800 9000 (landline users) or 2508 3333 (cellphone users) to report the problem.

1. Keep battery powered torch and radio.

If you have a battery-operated radio, listen to the local stations (SBIS and Voice of the Church) as we will keep our customers informed of electricity supply problems, especially during the times of severe weather.

Load-shedding

SEC has been implementing load-shedding throughout Swaziland since September 2015. Load-shedding is a deliberate and temporal interruption of electricity supply to avoid a countrywide blackout due to high demand. It normally implemented in all parts of the country, even though at different times, as a control option and to avoid unplanned power cuts. While we generally use the word blackout loosely to mean ‘no lights’ in our local area, a country-wide blackout has much more serious consequences, which can occur when there is too much demand and too little supply. It causes imbalance in the electricity system thus tripping it in its entirety. SEC began implementing load reduction when internal its electricity generation capabilities were reduced and eventually halted due to the prevailing drought conditions.

Currently all power supplied to customers in Swaziland is imported from ESKOM in South Africa. While ESKOM is not implementing load-shedding in South Africa, SEC is forced to load-shed because there is a limit to the amount of power that the two entities have agreed to trade in without overwhelming ESKOM with increasing demand.

SEC prepares a monthly schedule that serves as a guide to managing load reduction. While the schedule shows daily load reduction plans for the morning, afternoon and evening hours, electricity usage usually peaks in the evening and early morning hours. It rarely happens in the afternoon and on weekends. The schedule is then a tentative plan of how the load will be reduced should the need arise at any time of the day. In rare cases where the targeted areas are not adequate to relieve the system, more are added and these are also part of the schedule.

The schedule is published in both the daily newspapers during the first week of each month, as well as on our website www.sec.co.sz and social media. It is important for customers to have a copy of the schedule and to report outages in areas not listed. To ascertain if a power cut in your area is due to load shedding please contact our call centre.