Load Shedding Myths – Separating BS From Fact

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 electricity until you turn it back on.
# Load-shedding must be done because people are using too much electricity, half-true, load shedding has to be done because too many people are using too much energy at the same time and Eskom cannot generate the required electricity
# Heavy rains have resulted in wet coal, Partially true , but inadequate supply chain management has resulted in low coal stockpiles
# Economic growth rates in the have exceeded all expectations. We are victims of our own success, this is typical government BS and totally untrue. Actual growth rates for the South African economy have always been below the targets set by government and way behind the growth rate of comparable emerging market economies.

Check Out Bryan’s article here for more insight on the underlying causes as well as possible solutions to the power crisis facing South Africans. It is evident that South Africans that don’t have plans to emigrate will be faced with regular load shedding and will need to become au-fait with generators, gas ovens/hobs and other electricity saving and generating devices.