A dark Africa lays ahead.....load shedding

[scotty]

New leaked documents seen by the Sunday Times show how a Gupta-linked company purchased an auditing firm so it could loot Eskom.

The report stated that Trillian bought an auditing firm – Nkonki – which had contracts with Eskom so it could be “looted with impunity”.

“Trillian and its former owner, Salim Essa, allegedly used Mitesh Patel, a minority shareholder in the black-owned Nkonki auditing firm, as a front,” stated the report.

Nkonki had auditing contracts with Transnet and Eskom, and after it was bought by Trillian it secured several new contracts with Eskom.

The report added that this happened at a time when several “Gupta supporters” were on Eskom’s board.

The purchase of the auditing firm, and it securing contracts with state entities, was part of the Guptas’ plan to capture SOEs.

Looting at Eskom

Looting at Eskom has reached biblical proportions in recent years, with reports stating that the total amount stolen could reach R500 billion.

The Special Investigating Unit is currently looking into the theft of R170 billion from Eskom – R139 billion of which is related to 11 contractors who helped build the Medupi, Kusile, and Ingula power plants.

With Eskom’s Medupi, Kusile, and Ingula plants costing R334 billion to build, the R139 billion stolen by contractors makes up a large chunk of the total price tag.

The SIU said as part of its investigation it has identified 1,980 employees who failed to declare their interests to Eskom.

Load-shedding

State capture and looting at Eskom have resulted in the company not being able to deliver a stable power supply to South Africa.

In December 2018, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said that a lack of skills at Eskom, problems with coal supply systems, and problems with the power generation system were major issues the utility faced.

He added that Eskom was one of the institutions heavily affected by state capture and contracts being awarded to the Gupta family.

“Today we feel the effect of state capture, and the reality that we have very old power stations that we are operating,” said Gordhan.

The effects of this are being felt by South Africans this week, with Eskom implementing stage 2, 3, and 4 load-shedding.

On Saturday and Sunday, stage 4 load-shedding has been put in place. This has been attributed to a loss of power imports from Mozambique and the need to conserve diesel and water supplies for the week ahead.

 

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/government/299570-shocking-new-details-on-how-guptas-looted-eskom.html?source=newsletter

[Mojoman]

Cyclone whatever buggered up powerlines from Cahora Bassa. You know it is trouble when reliant on importing from Mozambique.

 

Little birdy tells me fortunes being made tidying Eskom's ash bugger ups from minimal maintenance..

Am I being stupid here as I confess I am not the most financially clued up person but why do we import power and then also export power? Or do we only export power when we have an excess?

 

If we have to import power then that means we have a shortage? But then why not stop exporting power to make up the shortfall, surely our own needs are more important than another country up north?

[kosmonooit]

Cyclone whatever buggered up powerlines from Cahora Bassa. You know it is trouble when reliant on importing from Mozambique.

 

Little birdy tells me fortunes being made tidying Eskom's ash bugger ups from minimal maintenance..

 

 

Hei wenna maintenance is the white man's words!

 

Power system / grid is running so maxed out that the flap of a butterflies wings in De Aar tips it over. Where to from here...ffs, what a stuff up.

 

Interesting thing about that Cahora Bassa power line from Moz is that its DC, I think it was put in by Westinghouse and at the time and subsequently a bit controversial, I remember my Power Profs shaking their heads. But now high voltage DC power transmission are being rolled out more and more, I know in China there is some implementations there lately. Haven't revisite the theory but there must be a reason.

[eccc whippet]

Trying to figue out a cost effective method of powering my house...not only for load shedding...but a way to have a pure sine wave feeding my electronics at home.

 

No return on investment installing a generator...starts costing as you install it...what seems common...people dont maintain the generator so the day you need it...carb is blocked or diesel requires bleeding...so it is off to the generator service guy and you end up with another bill.

...plus the fuel costs and services....etc etc...for those 12 hours blackouts...and the fridge needs to run etc...a generator is a good way to get all those heavier loads up and running...not forgetting the terrible distorted sine wave it produces.

 

So then we look at an inverter connected to the mains charging batteries ...pure sine wave...an investment? ...i would think so...not only are you providing a pure sine wave...if installed correctly...could also save your electronic devices/hadrd drives etc from minor over voltages or dips...much like installing an online pure sine wave UPS back in the old days...connected via batteries...thats where it starts getting expensive and replacing the batteries ever 5 -7 years becomes a huge capital out lay.

 

Now we look at a solar setup...add an charger unit/inverter and a pile of batteries and you in for around R60 000...for a 6 kva unit....my response would be too expensive...and not an option for a home..

 

So i have been thinking cut out a pile of batteries and your 5-7 years huge capital outlays is no longer a nightmare from hell...but then why waste the money installing only solar panels if you are not home during the day and your max demand is in the evening from around 5 pm...by that time the sun is already going down...now that i am looking into finding a solution for my own house...it got me thinking.

 

Here are my thoughts for my house.

 

An affordable outlay...sell one of my bicycles (R20k ) and invest the money into my house...buy a start kit ...by this i mean 1 or 2 solar panels to get me started...a solar charger/pure sine wave inverter (24 volt)...and just 2 batteries (12 volt 100 amp/hr) ...

 

the system will run all the electronics in the house with the the battery as a backup...the alarm...which will be linked to the phone app so that i can control everything from my phone...open and close gates etc...cctv system also connected to an app for remote viewing...to check the gate which will also be controlled by the phone...control LED lights around the house...ADSL router and the TV...so no matter if there is load shedding or not...all this stuff will have power.

 

The solar panel will feed power into the house during the day and charge the batteries...depending on the size and quantity of the panels the more stuff will run...fridge...pool pump etc and as more panels are added so feed more items...to a point that hopefully it will start turning my meter backwards ( i told i am not allowed to do this)...there was talk at one stage about getting a refund...i cant see that happening...i believe we will be taxed before  we are credited.

 

These are just my thoughts...please share your thoughts or ideas...i might be way off the mark.

Edited March 18, 2019 by eccc whippet

[DJR]

................

 

An affordable outlay...sell one of my bicycles (R20k ) and invest the money into my house...buy a start kit ...by this i mean 1 or 2 solar panels to get me started...a solar charger/pure sine wave inverter (24 volt)...and just 2 batteries (12 volt 100 amp/hr) ...

 

the system will run all the electronics in the house with the the battery as a backup...the alarm...which will be linked to the phone app so that i can control everything from my phone...open and close gates etc...cctv system also connected to an app for remote viewing...to check the gate which will also be controlled by the phone...control LED lights around the house...ADSL router and the TV...so no matter if there is load shedding or not...all this stuff will have power................

This is more or less what we did on the farm in the sticks. We basically have 2 solar panels, an inverter / controller and two big deep cycle batteries.It runs the big fridge freezer and minor electronics (recharge laptops & other gadgets). On sunny days it charges the batteries enough to keep it going through the night. If we have a couple of overcast days in a row then sometimes it shuts down because the batteries cannot keep the fridge going through the night, especially in midsummer. That does not happen very often, and mostly when people try to freeze lots of things all at the same time. The idea was to add more panels / batteries as needed, but this far we decided against it. If we lived there permanently, I probably would have added led lights as well.

 

Sorry I cannot give you the specifications, we installed it about 5 years ago, and I simply don't recall the detail.

[CAAD4]

Any Hubbers installing these systems for a living in Cowteng?

[gummibear]

[Imploder]

Anyone watching the presser with Gordhan and Mabuza? We are in Beeeeg trouble, this thing is not going away in a hurry. The tone is not very optimistic.

[Bateleur1]

Anyone watching the presser with Gordhan and Mabuza? We are in Beeeeg trouble, this thing is not going away in a hurry. The tone is not very optimistic.

 

Care to elaborate for us folk who can't watch at the moment?

[Chris_]

Anyone watching the presser with Gordhan and Mabuza? We are in Beeeeg trouble, this thing is not going away in a hurry. The tone is not very optimistic.

 

I find the tone like they're talking to school children.

 

They told us irrelevant rubbish like what a boiler looks like, graphs of power usage and failing capacity, and how long its going to take to maintain and upgrade old and neglected plants.

[Mojoman]

Man. Just spent an couple of hours driving around trying to find little inverter packs just to keep a light on and a phone charged...stock is scarce people!

[Imploder]

Care to elaborate for us folk who can't watch at the moment?

We are face with a multi-faceted problem:

 

1) Ageing infrastructure - over 50% of our coal powered plants have been operating for over 37 years with minimal maintenance done

2) The decision was taken to replace these with NEW plants (Medupi and Kusile) - both these new plants are failures, incapable of performing the job they were built for.

3) Eskom has no funds to restock their Open Cycle Gas Turbine generators with diesel

4) Tropical Cyclone Idai has taken out two major supply lines that feed our network from the Cahora bassa Hydro Electric plant - Due to flooding in the area repairs to these lines will no happen in the near future.

 

Bottom line:

South Africans - please be patient and tolerant, you will need to modify your lives around an electricity scarce environment.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Imploder

[Bateleur1]

We are face with a multi-faceted problem:

 

1) Ageing infrastructure - over 50% of our coal powered plants have been operating for over 37 years with minimal maintenance done

2) The decision was taken to replace these with NEW plants (Medupi and Kusile) - both these new plants are failures, incapable of performing the job they were built for.

3) Eskom has no funds to restock their Open Cycle Gas Turbine generators with diesel

4) Tropical Cyclone Idai has taken out two major supply lines that feed our network from the Cahora bassa Hydro Electric plant - Due to flooding in the area repairs to these lines will no happen in the near future.

 

Bottom line:

South Africans - please be patient and tolerant, you will need to modify your lives around an electricity scarce environment.

 

Gees. Thanks for the info.  Basically what you are saying is that the Hub activity might be going down and us expats might have to help keep the hub going (when the server is up) 

[mazambaan]

A very simple thing. I'd like to know what Eskom actually pay for the diesel that fuels those turbines.

[eccc whippet]

You just have to watch SABC news if you want to see how bad it really is...3 days to restore the 40 % of power plants down at the moment they say...experts in the field say more like 5 years to fix the problem.

 

You know when a panel is put together to handle the issues...but the panel are not suitably qualified or experienced to tackle the task at hand...so they are employing the services of suitably qualified people to sit in for them...it sounds like it all just costs us more money.

 

The joke of it all...i go to find out about solar panels etc and the so called people in the know selling the stuff have this big figue to try scare you away for some really dumb reason...the person ispoke to gave me a figue of R60 000 plus plus plus...my question to him was why not come up with an affordable solution for more people...in other words offer a basic kit which can expand as funds come available...not everyone has R60 k plus to throw at a solar solution in one hit...R15 k with a 2 year payment plan sounds more realistic for joe soap.

 

Maybe the government should be encouraging people to go solar...it seems to be the only way forward and the most realistic....and solar with the least amount of batteries...because the batteries is not only an environment issue to dispose of them...they are also a huge expense every 3-7 years.

 

I did so homework last night and spoke to a man about a solar panel and how to go about reducing my electricity and providing my house with power during load shedding.

 

This is what we came up with...

 

big 36 volt solar panels x 4  per 1300 watt grid tie inverter (imported directly from china) at a cost of R10 000 per set including delivery using a courier service...delivered in 7 - 14 working days...to add as i can afford...these grid tie inverters will sink with the main power ...i am told it is illegal to push power back into the system and make your meter turn backwards...your metro will replace your meter at your cost if you want to do it the legal route...during the day the solar will supply power to appliances in the house ie fridge...pool pump etc the more panels the more money you save or more you pump back into the grid...my thoughts are to design the setup to optimize the panels to the load required during the day to stop the meter rather than push power back into the grid...apparently it is not worth the hassle...metro will only pay back a small amount...for example 70c of the R1.70 you are billed in Durban...i am told the other R1.00 is for "costs" to the metro.

 

2 x 12v 100  amp/hr batteries (making up a 24 v system ...36 would be better but then the replace cost for 4 batteries required becomes and issue again) to keep the electronics and light going during load shedding.

[eccc whippet]

A very simple thing. I'd like to know what Eskom actually pay for the diesel that fuels those turbines.

Apparently if the price they are paying for coal and rubble at the moment is anything to go by...it would just twice the man on the street would be paying....and they are not prepared to name and shame according to the person being interviewed.