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

[Lurch the stalker]

As there will be no entertainment a foresee baby making a high probability.  

 

Apparently that has been proven to be untrue that births go up when there is a power outage.

Admittedly, this was a study in the US where the lights go out for a few hours at a time, not a few days, so in our case it may be true

 

"Eskom" and "maintenance philosophy" in the same sentence for some reason make me think about pigs and lipstick.

Oxymoron (with emphasis on the 'moron' part )

[Stretch]

so..I read an interesting article today that municipalities are owing eskom billions across the country but as expected government is masking this debt in order to make the municipalities appear now functional ahead of the local government elections....so while there has been gross mismanagement in the past...there is also a lot of politicking

Edited January 19, 2015 by Stretch

[Ed-Zulu]

so..I read an interesting article today that municipalities are owing eskom billions across the country but as expected government is masking this debt in order to make the municipalities appear now functional ahead of the local government elections....so while there has been gross mismanagement in the past...there is also a lot of politicking

Yeah, absolutely. And remember, ESKOM budgets were plundered in the post 1994 to 2000 period to build RDP houses etc, etc when electricty capacity was at a massive surplus...

 

That said, the ANC can try and mask as much as they can, they are in trouble, the opposition as shown by the EFF is laying bare their weaknesses and hopefully the rest of the opposition will latch on and give them hell!

[(Deon)]

DA letter - Quite current, as of 20hrs ago.

 

 

"I have today written to Public Enterprises Minister, Lynne Brown, to demand answers on why Unit 6 at Medupi is being commissioned and connected to the national grid, despite tests showing that it is not working as it should.

Medupi is two years late and R40 billion over budget.

Steam tests that were meant to take two weeks have been going on for two months now. According to reports today, senior engineers at Medupi have blamed the Mitsubishi Hitachi boiler. It is believed that there is a huge problem with the design of the piping and as a result it will not operate correctly.

Eskom appears to be ignoring the advice of its technical team and is ready to bring the boiler to life.

This approach carries incredible risk. If the boiler turbines of Unit 6 are damaged and the power station is further delayed it will wreak havoc on our economy. If Eskom and government are serious about solving the ever growing electricity crisis, then Medupi cannot continue to be handled with the secrecy and inefficiency that has marked the project so far.

South Africans need Medupi to be brought online without delay, but the method must also be sustainable in the long-term, otherwise the country will find itself in the same position a few years from now.

We await Minister Brown’s urgent response on this matter."

[(Deon)]

Eskom comment re known issues - written Dec before tests that are now shown to still have issues.

 

 

Medupi Power Station Project

Significant progress has been achieved with the commissioning of unit 6.  The major step of steam blow through for cleaning of the boiler pipework is underway.  This is the last major step preceding the redirecting of steam to the turbine for power generation. Synchronization of the first unit remains targeted for 24 December 2014, however some commissioning risks still remain, which may delay synchronization by several days beyond this date. The risks are receiving management’s full attention. Full commercial operation of the unit is expected approximately six months later. Additional resources were mobilised to Unit 6 by both the boiler and control and instrumentation (C&I) contractors to mitigate any resource-driven delays. Additional shifts were introduced 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in order to accelerate progress on site. Eskom continues to work with contractors to resolve any issues that could affect the schedule.

 

Synchronisation, or first power, is the process whereby the generator in the unit is electrically connected into the power grid, in such a way that its power is perfectly aligned with all the other generators and to generate and deliver electricity into the grid.

 

The process is a bit like a car preparing to join the traffic flow on the highway: it has to get its gearing and speed right before it can flow in sync with the rest of the traffic.

 

Edited January 19, 2015 by DeondV

[Andrew Steer]

so..I read an interesting article today that municipalities are owing eskom billions across the country but as expected government is masking this debt in order to make the municipalities appear now functional ahead of the local government elections....so while there has been gross mismanagement in the past...there is also a lot of politicking

http://www.timeslive.co.za/businesstimes/2015/01/18/eskom-now-for-the-really-bad-news

 

This one I assume... bloody crazy! I think I will be buying a generator very shortly!

[Mojoman]

http://www.timeslive.co.za/businesstimes/2015/01/18/eskom-now-for-the-really-bad-news

 

This one I assume... bloody crazy! I think I will be buying a generator very shortly!

But what happens when power is reduced to the refineries etc? Will we in the future start to experience petrol and supply shortages? I dont know how refineries work but I am sure they are a massive load on the grid?

[Stretch]

http://www.timeslive.co.za/businesstimes/2015/01/18/eskom-now-for-the-really-bad-news

 

This one I assume... bloody crazy! I think I will be buying a generator very shortly!

 

thats the one

[Brett]

So could this mean more riding time? I hope so ;-)

[ShelbyTanker500]

EISHKOM!!!!!!!!!! JSUT AS BAD AS HELKOM!!!!

[GLuvsMtb]

But what happens when power is reduced to the refineries etc? Will we in the future start to experience petrol and supply shortages? I dont know how refineries work but I am sure they are a massive load on the grid?

Our mines are probably the biggest user in the country. I am not sure what their backup / generator capacity is. One of the huge problems with a prolonged nationwide blackout is the spike in fuel demand and our refineries inability to deliver when such a spike occurs. I have decided to keep 50lt petrol and 50lt diesel backup fuel at home. I know it wont get me far (probably 2 to 3 weeks per car and the gennie if we use it sparingly), but at least its something. 

[(Deon)]

This really get's juicy half way..

 

Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut's CEO says politics is steering SA to disaster.

 

The head of one of South Africa's largest business chambers, the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut, says the government's fixation with ideology and politics is steering the country to disaster - and nowhere is this more apparent than in the collapse of Eskom.

 

Christo van der Rheede was part of a delegation of business leaders who were briefed on the energy crisis by Eskom this week. At the meeting, Eskom CEO Tshediso Matona told them his parastatal needed an immediate R20-billion bailout to keep the lights on.

 

But Matona couldn't tell them why Eskom was not collecting the billions owed to it by municipalities.

 

This failure to pay Eskom has contributed significantly to the electricity provider's cash crisis. "We were told it is a government issue and their hands are tied," says Van der Rheede.

 

These municipalities are in effect "sabotaging" the country, he says, but the government will not do anything about it for political reasons.

 

"This is simply not good enough. Someone must be called to task. Ministers must put pressure on cabinet and cabinet must put pressure on the head of this country to clamp down on people who are completely disregarding the laws of this country."

 

Putting Politics Ahead of SA

 

Another example of the government putting ideology and politics ahead of South Africa's interests, he says, is its refusal to use readily available private sector expertise to fix the power crisis.

 

"Why the state is so fearful of the private sector boggles my mind.

 

"I am very perturbed by this idea that ideology or politics will solve our problems. We sit with a business challenge and we need a business solution driven by expertise from the business environment."

 

The government is contributing to the looming crisis by "trying to downplay the situation", Van der Rheede says.

 

"This is no use at all. The CEO clearly stated that we sit with a national emergency. Not my words, his words."

 

But then the government contradicted Matona's statements.

 

Van der Rheede also questions the government's seriousness in ending the crisis, considering that it put someone with Matona's limited experience in charge. Although he praised Matona for being "frank" about the problems facing Eskom, Van der Rheede was clearly not filled with confidence about Matona's ability to lead Eskom to safety.

 

"When [senior executive] Dr [steve] Lennon, who is a top-class guy, spoke at a previous meeting, I immediately sat up because here's a guy who knows the ins and outs of Eskom. He's an engineer, he's got a strong business background," he says.

 

Lennon announced his resignation after the appointment of Matona, a former director-general in the Department of Public Enterprises, and will be leaving Eskom in March.

 

"Why they bring in somebody from outside with very, very little experience, especially at a time like this, is mind-boggling," says Van der Rheede.

 

He thinks it would be naive not to relate the present crisis to the "massive, massive brain drain from Eskom over a period of time".

 

The really bad news is that it is about to get even worse.

 

Van der Rheede says he can't believe that, at this stage, Eskom is offering pension packages to its staff.

 

"Of course it is experienced people who are taking those packages. So we sit with a massive, massive crisis. At a time like this you need to rally your best troops. You don't tell them to leave the organisation."

 

A former school principal on the Cape Flats who became a developmental economist, Van der Rheede, 50, describes as "nonsense" the claim by Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown that Eskom needs to remain out of private hands in order to implement the government's developmental agenda.

 

"You don't use a state-owned enterprise for developmental purposes. You use a state-owned enterprise to provide the best service at the best price to communities, to businesses. You have schools to develop communities, you have NGOs to develop communities, you have state departments to serve as instruments for development. SOEs are first and foremost businesses and they must be run like businesses. If it serves a developmental agenda, then you go the wrong route. That is not their purpose."

 

Van der Rheede represents the interests of 20000 businesses, from giants such as Absa to the small and medium-sized businesses on which, he believes, South Africa's prospects for economic growth and employment largely depend.

 

Disastrous

 

The power cuts predicted by Matona will be "disastrous" for them, he says.

 

They don't have the money to buy generators or invest in alternative power supplies. Many are farmers who need a constant supply of electricity to keep their storage facilities going.

 

Matona made it clear to business leaders that South Africa is balanced on a knife edge.

 

Van der Rheede believes that if there is a repeat of the infrastructure failures of last year, such as the silo collapse at Majuba power station, "we will face the possibility of a complete blackout. If that happens, the entire economy of this country will come to a standstill."

 

His "biggest fear" is that infighting and factionalism as the 2016 local government elections approach will further reduce the already seriously limited capacity of municipalities to manage the power cuts that lie ahead.

 

"You need them to implement load-shedding schedules properly so that businesses and factories can plan around them. You already have dysfunctional municipalities which don't have the expertise to do this, never mind maintain the infrastructure and collect money from the local populace."

 

Many in the government and the ANC condemn this kind of talk as ridiculously, even treasonably, alarmist.

 

Van der Rheede doesn't agree.

 

"I've studied risk management. We call it heat mapping, where you sit and say: 'What are the probabilities and what will the impact be?'

 

"If you look at the current state of affairs and at what has happened over the past year, we're already in the red part of that heat map.

 

"If you try and brush over that as being alarmist, then you must either be very stupid or you don't care a damn. We cannot afford that type of attitude."

 

Van der Rheede says South Africa is rather like the frog placed in the pot of water that is slowly being brought to the boil, unaware of what is happening.

 

"The water has started to boil. We're going to discover too late that it has reached boiling point. Unless business rises to the occasion now and makes its voice heard."

[(Deon)]

Our mines are probably the biggest user in the country. I am not sure what their backup / generator capacity is. One of the huge problems with a prolonged nationwide blackout is the spike in fuel demand and our refineries inability to deliver when such a spike occurs. I have decided to keep 50lt petrol and 50lt diesel backup fuel at home. I know it wont get me far (probably 2 to 3 weeks per car and the gennie if we use it sparingly), but at least its something. 

Carry some cash too. An ATM will be just a colourful box.

[flymango]

Our mines are probably the biggest user in the country. I am not sure what their backup / generator capacity is. One of the huge problems with a prolonged nationwide blackout is the spike in fuel demand and our refineries inability to deliver when such a spike occurs. I have decided to keep 50lt petrol and 50lt diesel backup fuel at home. I know it wont get me far (probably 2 to 3 weeks per car and the gennie if we use it sparingly), but at least its something. 

 

Prepper?        But all with good reason I'd say ...

[mazambaan]

Where's Capricorn? He crapped on me, and said I was talking rubbish, some time ago for suggesting that Eskom was useless and he maintains they are a sterling organisation with great, hard working highly skilled people (he didn't mention very well paid). We should be praising them for supplying what power we are lucky enough to get. 

 

I'm sure there are these type of people there (like at SANRAL) but they do not seem to be making any discernible improvement for whatever reason.

[Capricorn]

I'm right here, and you are still talking crap I see: no specifics, just deluded generalisations. That's what earned you the knock the last time.