South Africans not buying into electricity price increases

Do you support electricity price increases?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 6.7%

  • No

    Votes: 126 93.3%
  • Total voters
    135
Eskom and the government are responsible for getting us into this mess. I understand more money is needed to build more power stations, but there is no proper plan in place, mismanagement is rife, huge bonuses are handed out, the system is corrupt and our increase will pay for this incompetence.

I say let the private companies and government pay for the stations (using taxes) and Eskom increases their tariffs in accordance with inflation.

We will soon go from the cheapest electricity in the world to the most expensive if Eskom has their way.
 
timgaul said:
We will soon go from the cheapest electricity in the world to the most expensive if Eskom has their way.
Click to expand...
We're not even the cheapest anymore. I think we're on par (or a bit more expensive) than the yanks as it stands.
 
I really don't see why there's a need for the sudden increases. Eskom knew that electricity capacity was going to run out around this time back in 1998, so it comes down to bad planning. Now they are frantically trying to keep up with the growth in demand - how long do they think it takes to plan, approve and build a single power station?

They really need to start looking at what other countries are doing regarding energy, since coal is not all that good for electricity generation. If other developing countries start to use more coal, the global coal price will increase, which will mean another tariff hike. Like I said... it all boils down to bad planning.
 
We can vote complain here, but you know that it does not count. We will end up paying the extra. At least the honest decent folk will do this, those illegal connections we see hanging across buildings and roads, will stay, because those users form the voter base and the ANC does not want to mess with them.
 
That article has some very alarming statements in it if you ask me.

But yes, the increases will come one way or another and we'll all suffer.

But what worries me the most is Eksdom trying to fiund expansion without going to the normal lending routes, and TNS seem to think they shouldn't go the normal lending route with the finances being payable back over 25 or 50 years or whatever the normal period is.
 
Smooth Criminal said:
LancelotSA.
Click to expand...

lol! :D

ToxicBunny said:
That article has some very alarming statements in it if you ask me.

But yes, the increases will come one way or another and we'll all suffer.

But what worries me the most is Eksdom trying to fiund expansion without going to the normal lending routes, and TNS seem to think they shouldn't go the normal lending route with the finances being payable back over 25 or 50 years or whatever the normal period is.
Click to expand...

I agree. These increases are going to hit hard over the next few years :/
 
This hasnt been thought through according to my logic. They say we should use less electricity so that the hike doesnt change much of our electricity bill...but then the reason for the hike becomes null and void...hence we now pay the same for less...and Eskom still doesnt get it's ridiculously high amount of money it needs to upgrade its silly outdated infrastructure. So, they will have to take out a massive loan anyway...so why not skip the expensive exercise that will implement this and just move on to taking out the massive loan. The moment that this comes through I will convert my entire house into a solar powered entity...I have worked out that I can do this for roughly R12000...I will save that in the first year of Eskom's price hike. Nuff said.
 
ToxicBunny said:
But what worries me the most is Eksdom trying to fiund expansion without going to the normal lending routes, and TNS seem to think they shouldn't go the normal lending route with the finances being payable back over 25 or 50 years or whatever the normal period is.
Click to expand...
Eskom has pretty much maxed out the capacity of the local bond market as far as I know and they haven't been getting very attractive rates in the overseas markets.

The obvious solution is to privatise Eskom (which will bring in the capital), but there are very few investors who would be able to afford climbing into such a venture. Add the fact that "privatisation" is a swear word for the ANC & its allies and you're pretty much stuck in the position where we are at the moment...
 
klasvaakie said:
This hasnt been thought through according to my logic. They say we should use less electricity so that the hike doesnt change much of our electricity bill...but then the reason for the hike becomes null and void...hence we now pay the same for less...and Eskom still doesnt get it's ridiculously high amount of money it needs to upgrade its silly outdated infrastructure.
Click to expand...

This actually happened after the first increase we had. A spokes person from Eskom told government that people where now using less electricity and as a result Eskom was now making less than before the increase. So they wanted another increase to compensate the loss.

I do know, as it was shown to me buy a lawyer, that it is actually illegal to generate your own electricity. You supposed to have an energy license. Not that this will stop any of us... I am already working on alternatives.

I propose three solutions to the problem.

1. Privatise the energy sector. Allow private offshore companies to build their power stations and then sell the energy to Eskom and/or the nearest Metro.

2. Time Tabled rate card. Late at night when demand is low, make the electricty the cheapest. Morning and Evening when demand is high, make the electricty the most expensive. Replace old out dated meters with digital meters that can talk to the substation. No one needs to come to my house to read the meter and leave my effing gate open.

3. Community Power Generation. The Chinese have powerstations that are the size of several containers. They get delivered in containers, connected up and they have power for a village. It takes them less than 12 weeks to deliver and setup a working solution in the middle of Africa or Asia. Why were these guys turned down when they presented to government? You could literally build a small power plant in an area that has higher demand. And the best part, ZAR per Mega Watt is on parr to run with big powerstations, and setup is cheaper per Mega Watt. I think TidalPower is one such company I think. They are in Shangei if I am not mistaken.
 
:eek: Three votes for yes!!!

Does myBB have Eskom employees on these forums...:confused:
 
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