Public Enterprises Minister Alec Irwin believes that Eskom’s finances could be seriously impaired if it was not granted additional tariff hikes this year. Irwin believes that it would be better for consumers to feel the pain now rather than wait for 2009 , in addition he says that not granting the increase will negatively [...]
Bryan Hadefield an electrical engineer with 30 years experience provides some useful insights into the myths surrounding the load shedding crisis as well as explaining the real causes behind the crisis. Bryan identifies the following misconceptions,
# Turning off your geyser will help save electricity, BS - It mostly just postpones the use of that [...]
Load shedding and rising electricity prices in South Africa are causing consumers to look for ways to save electricity, until recently with few supply problems and cheap electricity saving electricity was never an issue for the South African electricity consumer. Rolling blackouts and load shedding have changed that.
Eskom has approached the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) for a 60% hike in electricity tarrifs, this will replace the increase of 14.2% that has already been granted. Eskom cites increased coal prices and demand side management issues.
The request comes after statements by SA President Thabo Mbeki that the era of cheap electricity was [...]
Eskom has indicated that it is unlikely load shedding will be implemented over the Easter long weekend as demand is generally lower over weekends. Hopefully the colder weather clears up and none of Eskom’s remaining generators trip.
This announcement comes on the back of Eskom instituting rolling blackouts yesterday as colder weather hit the country increasing [...]
Sandton City, one of South Africa’s largest shopping centers, suffered more than its peers as a result of load shedding , according to a spokesperson from Liberty Properties, the owner of Sandton City. One of the reasons for this is that Sandton City is a direct customer of Eskom.
Several business owners admitted that January 2008 [...]
Eskom are to pay R9.22 million in bonuses on 31 March 2008. The following quote is from a petition at MyPetition.co.za,
The performance criteria for the payment of the “Award Performance Shares” includes financial and non-financial criteria as per an agreed weighting per performance areas that includes capacity, cost of electricity, people, environmental factors, customer service [...]
Thanks to a great plugin called Powerfox you can monitor load shedding via your browser. This tool uses a RSS feed from the PowerAlert website and adds a small icon to the browser’s status bar indicating power levels. You can download it here.
The plugin was written for Firefox, if you don’t have Firefox (and you [...]
South Africans contemplating a bleak winter caused by government and Eskom’s mismanagement of electricity supply should consider solar power and harness the sun’s energy as a means to supplement some/all of their electricity requirements. It is clean renewable source of energy and you need never worry about supply.
Moneyweb reports that output from South African mines has declined as a result of blackouts and load shedding. Gold production decline by 16.5% compared to the same month last year, Platinum production fell by 15.9%. BHP Billiton also recently announced that it was cutting aluminum production by 120 000 tons per annum.
These declines in [...]
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