[Article] Eskom STOPS load shedding

[IanF]

OK I just read this:

Eskom is to suspend scheduled load shedding from Monday

Eskom is to suspend scheduled load shedding from Monday, May 5, said the utility's chief executive officer Jacob Maroga on Wednesday.

He said: "We are seeing evidence of increased energy savings from municipalities and Eskom is optimistic that further reductions to reach our 10% savings target are possible."

This is from MYADSL
Now when will see cheap generators UPS's etc.
The more I think about this the madder I get. My guess is ESKOM are just scared about the claims coming in for switches transformers etc.

[Dave A]

I saw that in the news feeds this morning too.

Ultimately I think it's spin. When Eskom can, they don't load shed or ask the municipalities to load shed

But ultimately they are still at the mercy of demand and unplanned outages. I somehow doubt they've suddenly developed enough redundancy to cope with a "busy" day.

[murdock]

i think they are confused and we are still gona be in for a cold winter...or someone has been making lots of money at eskom from all the back hands from the generator suppliers...how can they sudden without building additional power stations have enough power...someone is bullsh*tin us...i hope we have lots of load shedding because we have container loads of generators and invertors arriving in the next week or two...i dont think its all bad ...no shedding...because maybe the prices will stabilise and people wont get so ripped off.

[murdock]

this is just another way of looking at load shedding...

firstly i think they are stopping the load shedding because they are wanting to get the increase in place as soon as possible...and i am sure if they increase the tarrif while load shedding is taking place...there are going to be a lot of people who will have sense of humour failure...and really start retrenching staff...suing eskom..closing down companies...etc...etc.

secondly...here is another angle on this load shedding which someone pointed out to me today...lets just use a figue of 1 million rand...if we save 10% electricity and load shedding reduces the consumtion by 10 % that is 20% in total which means that eskom is loosing 200 000 in revenue...can they afford this...it cant be this amount because they pay out more than this in bonuses but just think about it....then the power station blows up and it more revenue lost...and repair costs...maybe they are starting to feel the pinch.

while having dinner tonight another person made another point...apparently eskom is using huge amounts of diesel and that is why the diesel price is going up more than the petrol...and they are consuming massive amounts of diesel...which is going to cause a shortage.

so i dont know what to believe anymore...i just wish they would make up their mind yes there is enough power...or no there isnt enough power...we import generators and invertors because of a power crisis which will last 10 - 15 years...now suddenly no more load shedding...do we spend 100 000 and fit generators and or do we just sit and wait and see...

[Dave A]

apparently eskom is using huge amounts of diesel and that is why the diesel price is going up more than the petrol...and they are consuming massive amounts of diesel...which is going to cause a shortage.

You might be onto something there. I have heard that companies with big back-up generators are being paid to use them rather than draw off the grid. But so far it's been one of those "friend of a friend" stories. Can anyone confirm this?