SA goes from blackouts to quotas
21 January 2008, 05:53
By Jillian Green and Anna Cox
South Africans could soon be faced with electricity quotas. Speaking to The Star on Sunday, Jacob Maroga, Eskom's chief executive, revealed that the parastatal was working on a plan which would see household and private industry usage being rationed.
According to Maroga, this ration would be calculated using an average consumption minus a specific percentage reduction.
Consumers who use more than their defined quota could face punitive costs or face being cut off.
"The bottom line is that we are constrained by not having enough power in our reserve margin to meet the current demands," Maroga said.
In the past two weeks the country has been hard hit by Eskom's blackouts, which saw some areas without electricity for up to five hours at a time, sometimes more than once a day - a situation which has placed enormous strain on households, businesses and ultimately the economy. And the prognosis for this week is that the blackouts will continue.
Maroga and his team were expected to meet President Thabo Mbeki on Monday and business leaders this week to discuss the ongoing crisis.
"We need (a reserve margin of) 15 percent and are now below 10 percent. Between planned and unplanned outages, 20 percent of our capacity is not available," Maroga explained.
He warned that the demand for power was increasing but the capacity to meet it was not growing at the same rate.
"If things stay as they are without intervention, the risk of continued load shedding remains high," he said.
Jody Kollapen of the South African Human Rights Commission noted that the concept of power rationing sounded, in principle, not to be a bad one, provided it was done in an equitable manner.
"As long as provision is made for the production of food and for emergency services and hospitals, it sounds like it makes good sense and will not be a violation of people's rights," he said.
But power rationing was still under discussion and, according to Maroga, was months off from implementation.
The short-term solution, he said, lay with consumers reducing consumption by 10 percent.
Eskom is investing in the rollout of energy-efficient globes and solar-power heating.
It is also discussing core generation - a process in which waste heat from industries is used for power generation.
South Africa hasn't always had a shortage of power.
In fact, in the mid-1980s, Eskom had an excess of capacity, so a decision was taken to mothball several power stations.
And when, in 2005, the demand for power started growing, some of those stations were earmarked to be brought back on line.
"It is not easy to reactivate them. It is not a question of just switching on - they were old and had to be refurbished and new equipment installed," Maroga explained.
Maroga said that reactivating three stations - Camden, Grootvlei and Komati, at a cost of R20-billion each - would generate an additional 3 600MW of energy.
"This will help with the deficit but will not close the gap," he said.
In the meantime, Maroga said the risk of blackouts remained high.
"Our intention is to be equitable among areas. (In the event of the need to load-shed), the plan is to have outages of two hours long once a day in an area.
"But the extent and size of the problem has seen some areas have more outages, for longer periods," he said.
Maroga apologised for the utility's poor communication, but said it was not always possible to stick to a specific schedule as the need to load-shed was unpredictable.
"Load shedding is always a last resort. It is not possible to predict when it's going to be needed, and this makes it difficult to give people proper warning.
"We are looking at improving our website and the load-shedding schedules."
Maroga admitted that if things continued as they were, with demand outstripping capacity, there was the potential of damage to the economy.
"We will be meeting the captains of industry within the next few days and are certain we will come up with a robust solution. It is a collective problem, but I am sure there is enough depth to come up with a solution."
Maroga said Eskom would be spending at least R1-trillion on building capacity over the next 25 years. "But it must be understood that the whole world is seeking more electricity, so a shortage of skills and supplies will be a constraint for us."
South Africans could soon be faced with electricity quotas. Speaking to The Star on Sunday, Jacob Maroga, Eskom's chief executive, revealed that the parastatal was working on a plan which would see household and private industry usage being rationed.
According to Maroga, this ration would be calculated using an average consumption minus a specific percentage reduction.
Consumers who use more than their defined quota could face punitive costs or face being cut off.
"The bottom line is that we are constrained by not having enough power in our reserve margin to meet the current demands," Maroga said.
In the past two weeks the country has been hard hit by Eskom's blackouts, which saw some areas without electricity for up to five hours at a time, sometimes more than once a day - a situation which has placed enormous strain on households, businesses and ultimately the economy. And the prognosis for this week is that the blackouts will continue.
Maroga and his team were expected to meet President Thabo Mbeki on Monday and business leaders this week to discuss the ongoing crisis.
"We need (a reserve margin of) 15 percent and are now below 10 percent. Between planned and unplanned outages, 20 percent of our capacity is not available," Maroga explained.
He warned that the demand for power was increasing but the capacity to meet it was not growing at the same rate.
"If things stay as they are without intervention, the risk of continued load shedding remains high," he said.
Jody Kollapen of the South African Human Rights Commission noted that the concept of power rationing sounded, in principle, not to be a bad one, provided it was done in an equitable manner.
"As long as provision is made for the production of food and for emergency services and hospitals, it sounds like it makes good sense and will not be a violation of people's rights," he said.
But power rationing was still under discussion and, according to Maroga, was months off from implementation.
The short-term solution, he said, lay with consumers reducing consumption by 10 percent.
Eskom is investing in the rollout of energy-efficient globes and solar-power heating.
It is also discussing core generation - a process in which waste heat from industries is used for power generation.
South Africa hasn't always had a shortage of power.
In fact, in the mid-1980s, Eskom had an excess of capacity, so a decision was taken to mothball several power stations.
And when, in 2005, the demand for power started growing, some of those stations were earmarked to be brought back on line.
"It is not easy to reactivate them. It is not a question of just switching on - they were old and had to be refurbished and new equipment installed," Maroga explained.
Maroga said that reactivating three stations - Camden, Grootvlei and Komati, at a cost of R20-billion each - would generate an additional 3 600MW of energy.
"This will help with the deficit but will not close the gap," he said.
In the meantime, Maroga said the risk of blackouts remained high.
"Our intention is to be equitable among areas. (In the event of the need to load-shed), the plan is to have outages of two hours long once a day in an area.
"But the extent and size of the problem has seen some areas have more outages, for longer periods," he said.
Maroga apologised for the utility's poor communication, but said it was not always possible to stick to a specific schedule as the need to load-shed was unpredictable.
"Load shedding is always a last resort. It is not possible to predict when it's going to be needed, and this makes it difficult to give people proper warning.
"We are looking at improving our website and the load-shedding schedules."
Maroga admitted that if things continued as they were, with demand outstripping capacity, there was the potential of damage to the economy.
"We will be meeting the captains of industry within the next few days and are certain we will come up with a robust solution. It is a collective problem, but I am sure there is enough depth to come up with a solution."
Maroga said Eskom would be spending at least R1-trillion on building capacity over the next 25 years. "But it must be understood that the whole world is seeking more electricity, so a shortage of skills and supplies will be a constraint for us."
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on January 21, 2008
Johannesburg
