And the lights go out again.

[duncan drennan]

Did anyone see the quick interview with Eskom's CEO on eNews last night?

[Dave A]

I didn't, but my brother said Thabo was on TV saying "Don't blame Escom. It is the government's fault."

Apparently, Escom did go to government in good time and say we were heading for a problem, and government ignored it because at the time Escom was still mothballing stations.

I know this - I feel like I've had my dose of loadshedding this week.
Monday 2-4 pm at my offices (Durban).
Tuesday 10-12 am at a meeting (Pretoria).
Wednesday (today) 2-4 pm at my offices (Durban) again.

It's getting beyond a joke.

[Dave A]

Here's confirmation of the Mbeki apology, and a bit more besides.

Constant power cuts are darkening the mood among South Africans, with President Thabo Mbeki admitting that the government was at fault for ignoring growing energy needs.

Africa's largest economy is buckling under energy pressures after failing to heed pleas by state power utility Eskom to invest more in electricity generation to keep up with the country's growth.

"We said not now, later. We were wrong. Eskom was right. We were wrong," Mbeki said in a rare public apology during a speech on Tuesday night.

To some the power cuts are a mere annoyance while small businesses lose money and some -- like the owner of a popular South African ice-cream brand -- face financial disaster when energy giant Eskom tightens its straining energy belt.

A booming post-apartheid economy, and scant regard for energy efficiency as South Africans lavishly squander electricity at the cheapest rates in the world, are some of the reasons Huberto Stempowski now has to find another way to chill his ice-cream.

"It's a big worry. We are being forced to invest in a generator. That's a huge expense for the business," says the owner of popular Huberto's ice-cream.
full story from M&G here

[Chatmaster]

Is there a practical way of running your entire household and office on solar power, anybody knows anything about the possibilities? I am seriously considering getting self sustained with electricity...

[duncan drennan]

Is there a practical way of running your entire household and office on solar power, anybody knows anything about the possibilities? I am seriously considering getting self sustained with electricity...

You certainly can....but it is VERY expensive (and I still have some doubts as to the eco-friendliness of solar photovoltaic panels).

A 200W panel costs about R9000. Desktop PC can be anywhere from 150-500W, laptops are usually under 90W (depending on what you have in it). You would probably also have to look at your lighting and what could work.

Personally I would want at least 1kW for a small home office (2 computers)...and that is R45k worth of solar panels

Oh yes, 200W panel is about 1.8m x 0.6m

[Dave A]

Then there are the batteries and inverter.

With this looking like a long term issue, I'm seriously considering installing a backup generator setup for my office. Computers, telephone system and lights, I think. The cost in downtime is really starting to add up.

[Chatmaster]

Yep, I think I would rather go with a generator as well.

dsd, why is there an issue with regards to the eco-friendlinesses of solar panels?

[Dave A]

Eskom has failed to get the big price hike they were hoping for. Although the approved increase of 14.2% is still well above the inflation target range.

Electricity parastatal Eskom has failed to secure permission to hike annual tariffs by 18% after the National Energy Regulator (Nersa) on Thursday ruled that it may only implement a price increase of 14,2%.

Nersa said that the rule changes applied for by Eskom in April had been declined.

Eskom had requested that it be allowed to increase tariffs by 18,7% during the 2008/09 financial year to maintain effective operations following a steep increase in its input costs of coal and the need to finance capital expenditure.
full story from M&G here

[duncan drennan]

dsd, why is there an issue with regards to the eco-friendlinesses of solar panels?

I need to do a bit of research to find out what the latest info is. About 5 years ago I spoke to a guy that did some research with solar panels, and he was quite dissillusioned as, at that time, the amount of energy required to manufacture a solar panel was more than it produced in it's entire lifetime.

I do need to find out if the current panels are better, but you do have to take into account manufacturing energy.

[Dave A]

With this thread in mind, I took a moment to get some details on my parent's solar electricity system whilst visiting over Christmas.

It's a 24 volt system and each 0.5 metre square panel produces 100 watts.

It wasn't much use talking about costs - they've had the system long enough that I'm sure the cost at the time would no longer be relevant nowadays.

[entoserv]

Eskom has failed to get the big price hike they were hoping for. Although the approved increase of 14.2% is still well above the inflation target range.

How is inflation ever going to go down if government keeps approving these big increases? Has government kept any increase below 6% lately?

[Dave A]

I was driving back to the office after a bit of wandering about. The 2.00 pm news bulletin on Radio 5 was not full of good cheer.

Eskom has asked for bids on a new nuclear power station - with hopes to get started in 2010 and completion by 2016.

Also, load shedding is expected all of this week. But how about this. Apparently people suffering load shedding once a day is not enough anymore. Some areas will be switched off for two hours twice a day now.

The problem is getting worse. Much worse. And I couldn't help but think of this post:

Shut down one aluminium smelter and the problem is solved. The govt knew what was coming, and yet gave a clearance for yet another smelter.

Are we still aggressively expanding the grid in the midst of this power shortage?
Surely new projects with a heavy draw have to be put on hold until we've got the power to carry them.

It was bad enough when you could expect a load shed in your area every couple of days. Now they're talking some areas twice a day! I expect that means virtually everyone can expect an interruption at least once a day.

What happened? A new smelter come online?

[Chatmaster]

Yep, Krugersdorp is down atm for the 2nd time today, that means 4 hours of productivity, gone. I need a serious question answered. I need to run 3 pc's, printer/fax and 2 notebooks. I need to buy a generator now. What sort of generator or solutions can you guys suggest?

[duncan drennan]

What type of printer, laser of inkjet?

[Chatmaster]

Inkjet!
Ok, this is really serious now. My losses for the day is in access of 15k. The electricity is off now for 2 and a half hours. That is excluding this morning's 2 hours. I am going to look for a generator right away. To buy it for 2k or 3k is now really worth while.