Blackouts starting now: Eskom

cybershark said:
Eskom's Etzinger tells @cnbcafrica that we could see a repeat of 2008 in Jan
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Jan? More like a year or three.

By that time everyone will have acclimatized. I saw that in Moz...companies just get used to the fact that you've got a 50/50 chance of having power, so generators is a must.
 
HavocXphere said:
Jan? More like a year or three.

By that time everyone will have acclimatized. I saw that in Moz...companies just get used to the fact that you've got a 50/50 chance of having power, so generators is a must.
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Well the first unit of Medupi should be fully synchronised by June so that's an extra 800MW...
 
torgo said:
So the R10bn is about the right no in the last annual report. Do some rough calcs.

R10bn/12 months = R830 m /pm / 30 days = R28m per day. So u correct.

Assume they get diesel cheaper at R10/l. This means they burn 2.7 million litres / day.

A typical tanker is 30 000 l capacity.

That is 90 tankers per day....I think this is conservative....
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Well according to some estimates they'll hit 120bn diesel per year at this rate. I doubt that'll happen though...they'll rather just increase blackouts because there is no way they can sustain that level of burning cash.
 
At this point, it's 100% safe to say that SA is truly ****ed. We are ****ed. This nightmare is far from over. What pisses me off is that Eksom is far too incompetent to do anything about those scums who use precious electricity for free. I reckon if Eskom catches and hang them, the problem would be 90% solved.
 
DarkSpectre said:
At this point, it's 100% safe to say that SA is truly ****ed. We are ****ed.
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:p

No, we are not. South Africans always find a way. We can fix anything and everything and have that can do spirit.

I just know it means much more braai time, which makes me really excited! :D

Things will get better in June, when Medupi comes online and I'm sure they will cut power to neighbouring states to save our economy.
 
kingrob said:
:p

No, we are not. South Africans always find a way. We can fix anything and everything and have that can do spirit.
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On the private sector side sure...we can always rely on SA businesses to adapt. A functional society needs more than pvt sector though.
 
HavocXphere said:
On the private sector side sure...we can always rely on SA businesses to adapt. A functional society needs more than pvt sector though.
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I think we will experience co-operation from government, once load shedding hits our ministers in their fancy houses. ;)

Also, they know they are alienating their voters, so they will do anything to make it right.

My biggest worry is crime, but most of the alarm systems all have backup batteries and can handle a power failure.
 
DarkSpectre said:
At this point, it's 100% safe to say that SA is truly ****ed. We are ****ed. This nightmare is far from over. What pisses me off is that Eksom is far too incompetent to do anything about those scums who use precious electricity for free. I reckon if Eskom catches and hang them, the problem would be 90% solved.
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Agreed about SA being ****ed.

I disagree about Eskom. There is plenty of talent in the organisation but is stifled by the corrupt, uneducated, criminal (the factual list goes on...) ANC govt.
The writing was on the wall decades ago but the warnings were ignored. What do you think will happen if Eskom cut off the free connections? Remember the ANC promised free electricity for the poor 20 years ago.
 
Power is on in a scheduled load shedding timeslot. Eskom is good at messing up planning.
 
kingrob said:
I think we will experience co-operation from government, once load shedding hits our ministers in their fancy houses. ;)

Also, they know they are alienating their voters, so they will do anything to make it right.

My biggest worry is crime, but most of the alarm systems all have backup batteries and can handle a power failure.
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I hear you. And, yes, we need to make the best of a lousy situation.

The thing is, though, that there's nothing the government can do about it for a while. Even if they suddenly morphed into super-competents, it would take years and years, so this mess has no quick end. Base load stations take the better part of a decade to migrate from board decision to spinning generators.

In the meantime we're using peak load relievers like the diesel turbines to act as base load generators, killing their lifespan. And the creaky old coal stations are being over-revved without an oil-change, so reliability and lifespan suffer further...
 
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Loadshedding last night from 6-8:30pm
Good thing I have a gas stove.
Seriously how useless are they that they cant even keep their existing units up?
No doubt the CEO will still receive a fat bonus after all of this.
 
With the first Unit from Medupi expected to go online around June, I don't think it will make much difference.

Its only going to add a maximum of 800MW to the grid. At start up, average should be in the range of 600ish. When Eskom loadsheds, they are taking 2000MW of the grid. Considerably higher than what Medupi can provide.

The other older power stations on literally running on a fine line and need to shut down some units for maintenance. When Medupi's Unit 6 comes online, some of those pwer stations may shut a unit down for a few months for the critical maintenance required. So I don't forsee much of a change in the current situation.

Hopefully at worst Eskom may only need to implement stage 1 loadshedding once a week to recharge the reservoirs on the pump storage schemes.
 
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Loadshedding was suppose to start here at 10 only start at 11:30. ****ing idiots can't even keep to their dam schedule
 
Arthur said:
The thing is, though, that there's nothing the government can do about it for a while. Even if they suddenly morphed into super-competents, it would take years and years, so this mess has no quick end. Base load stations take the better part of a decade to migrate from board decision to spinning generators.
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I agree with what you're saying & I firmly believe that you cannot motivate any person, if they don't want to be motivated.

However, I have experienced the miracles that cash incentives can get out of people first hand. Now imagine Eskom gave the workers at Medupi cash incentives, instead of burning R28 million in diesel every day, things can move along at a much more rapid pace.

Like the instructor says to the Navy Seal recruit in "Lone Survivor" - "Find any excuse to win."
 
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