By now, most of you should have heard about South Africa’s power-shortage:
Wikipedia says:
“Due to the South African government denying funding to Eskom – South Africa’s national electricity producer – for expansion, the capacity of the nation’s electricity grid has not kept up with demand. From December 2005 until February 2006, rolling blackouts were implemented in Cape Town and other areas of the Western Cape. This was the result of one of two reactors at Koeberg nuclear power station being unavailable for this period, with the transmission lines from the coal-fired power stations in Mpumalanga having insufficient capacity to make up the shortfall. These blackouts and the accompanying brouhaha in the media resulted in Eskom and the government announcing a number of plans for new power stations, and Eskom started returning mothballed power stations to service. However, it is expected that the supply constraints will last for a number of years.
In October 2007, rolling blackouts were implemented in many parts of the country, including the executive capital city, Pretoria, and the biggest city and economic hub, Johannesburg. At times these blackouts have been reported to last a number of days.
Although Eskom and the municipalities involved in implementing the blackouts make some attempt to provide schedules, very often the information is incorrect or is only provided after the blackout has started. A number of deaths resulted from power to hospitals being cut in the Cape Town blackouts in 2006, with certain hospitals not having adequate backup facilities. As a result, an agreement was reached to not cut power to hospitals. However, during the blackouts in Pretoria in October 2007, the City of Tshwane municipality cut power to areas including hospitals.
Eskom uses load shedding and demand side management during peak loading to prevent large scale blackouts.“
Recent news headlines serve to illustrate the point further:
“Eskom gives reasons for resorting to load-shedding [January 11, 2008, 09:00]
Eskom has given reasons why their technical problems are now more serious than in the past, forcing them to resort to load shedding. Power cuts were experienced in various places yesterday as the utility resumed power cuts nationwide, due to technical problems at power stations. General Manager of demand-side management at Eskom, Andrew Etzinger says technical problems have always been there over time. The amount has been reduced slightly but what has changed is that there are no longer reserve margins to help them through. “Those times in the past, if we had a problem with a generator we would simply start another generator and make up for that difference. But we just do not have those spare generators any more”. ” source: SABC News
Basically, our national electricity provider doesn’t have the capacity to fulfill our (growing) national demand. (More people = more houses, educational facillites & places of business = more power needs.) We need new power plants – which take time to build. (8 years, apparently.)
Thankfully, Eskom worked out a “load shedding schedule” for the country. In my area, we’re scheduled to be without power as follows:
Mon, Wed, Fri : 12:00 – 14:30
Tues, Thurs, Sat: 18:00 – 21:00
(Load shedding, however, is not a 100% managable process:
“Load shedding started in some part of SA due to four generators that tripped in MpumalangaJanuary [12, 2008, 10:15]
Load shedding started early today in some parts of the country due to four generators tripping in Mpumalanga, Eskom said.The four coal-powered generators tripped yesterday night. “It is a coincidence of events that these generators tripped within hours of each other,” said Eskom spokesman Andrew Etzinger.”We did not plan load shedding for this weekend but the combined effect of these generators is such that load shedding has to happen,” he said.Etzinger said they would load shed on rotational basis and would keep it to not more than two-and-a-half hours. He said technicians were working hard to make sure the four generators are operational soon. – Sapa” Source: SABC News
Now, thinking about how all of this has affected me, my business and those I know – I’ve began to think that this situation might force a new approach to business and life in general.
Obviously the first option is to buy your own generators. (Not a carbon footprint-friendly sollution though.) And what does it help if you have power, but your local supplier(s) dont?
Another idea is to restructure your operating hours.
I’m thinking a siesta on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays might be a good idea. As in Spain, I’d take those hours off for a leisurely afternoon nap – and work them in during the early evening. (There are some hitches with this idea, I admit. One being that load shedding doesn’t occur at the same time, all over the country. Obviously.)
At home, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays – I’d have to have pre-prepped dinner, or braai. Bugger candle-light, I live by the sea – the stars are awesome! Another benifit of this forced “quality time” would be healthier relationships!
U-oh – gotta go. Load shedding in 10 minutes!
Have fun kids! I close at 3PM ;0)
