Consumers may pay extra during peak - Eskom

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JTech

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Differential electricity tariffs may have to be introduced to encourage South Africans to use electricity during off-peak periods, Eskom said on Tuesday.
"In the next few years differential tariffs may become necessary, charging a premium at peak periods and giving consumers a bigger incentive to use electricity in cheaper off-peak periods," a statement from Tsholo Matlala, Eskom Energy Services manager, said.

The peak periods for electricity demand are from 6.30am to 10am and 5pm to 9pm.

South Africa's rapid economic growth in recent years resulted in electricity demand rising faster than planners had anticipated.

'We have developed a lifestyle of using electricity without much consideration...'
Peak period consumption rose by an estimated 15 percent over the past decade.

"That rapid increase has narrowed the gap between total electricity demand and the available supply, even as Eskom plans and builds new power stations," Matlala said.




South Africans needed to use the various ways to conserve electricity.

"South Africans have developed a lifestyle of using electricity without much consideration due to excess capacity in the past. This situation is fast changing as the demand for electricity increases every year. We want to change that lifestyle," Matlala said.

A conservation campaign - Demand Side Management (DSM) - encourages consumers to use less electricity, particularly during the morning and evening peak periods.

The company is also subsidising the price of energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and in the Western Cape Eskom is distributing 5 million CFLs free of charge.

The company supports energy-saving equipment like geyser blanket projects, and the use of subsidised gas appliances for cooking and heating.

Western Cape businesses with their own generators are also being encouraged to use them, particularly at peak periods, to reduce the amount of power drawn from the grid over the next few months as part of the self-generation programme.

Households are encouraged to turn their geysers down, to shower rather than bath and to switch to gas for heating and cooking.

"We know it will take time to change people's lifestyles, but it needs to be done. Because the cost of electricity has been affordable in South Africa compared to most European countries, people are inclined to switch on needlessly, and so use electricity wastefully."
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I find this rather hard to believe, especially the fact that the peak is not during the day and we all know that industry is the biggest consumer of power! They claim that power usage peaks in the mornings and at night. In theory peak usage should be around 8-9 or thereabouts as factories start up their machines. The peak at night is understandable yes, as most everyone uses electric stoves/microwave to cook dinner. Then, what about all the illegal power connections and people that abuse power (like the lot where my parents stay that dip the lights of the entire neighbourhood with their fcuking industrial welding machine at night every time they weld a joint)
 
While the times need to be investigated by an idependent auditor, the idea behind it is not that bad.

Ultimately we, the consumer, will pay for these high loads - be it through the investment in new power plants, or through increased costs in energy cosumption in peak times.
 
JTech said:
I find this rather hard to believe, especially the fact that the peak is not during the day and we all know that industry is the biggest consumer of power! They claim that power usage peaks in the mornings and at night. In theory peak usage should be around 8-9 or thereabouts as factories start up their machines. The peak at night is understandable yes, as most everyone uses electric stoves/microwave to cook dinner. Then, what about all the illegal power connections and people that abuse power (like the lot where my parents stay that dip the lights of the entire neighbourhood with their fcuking industrial welding machine at night every time they weld a joint)
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Factories (the big ones anyway) never shut down, except during maintenance and even then there's usually another plant to take up the slack.

What Eskom should do is start enforcing their industrial interruptible contracts. Some industrials have paid ridiculously low electricity bills for years due to being on an interruptible but have never actually been cut off. Now that Eskom wants to interrupt them, they're complaining to high heaven (the big smelters are especially guilty) but completely ignoring the lower fees they've paid for years.
 
Ah, so when do they plan on introducing electricty caps? :D
 
I'm all for them making off peak cheaper as long as they dont make peak rates higher. Washing machines, dryers, dish washers, geysers all run just as nicely a night and if they're costing less to run then bonus.

I've lived in countries where its done and its worth it.
 
It will require each household to install a new meter... who is going to pay for it, and how long is it going to take to recover the costs?

Sounds like a daft idea to me when one looks at the practical aspects of this.
 
kaspaas said:
Sounds like a daft idea to me when one looks at the practical aspects of this.
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What about off peak calls? Is that also a daft idea? All it requires is a bit of change in your usual routine and you save money.

For it to make sense eskom would have to subsidise the cost of the dual meters. Out of curiosity - who pays for the new meter when you switch to prepaid?
 
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bwana v.12 said:
What about off peak calls? Is that also a daft idea? All it requires is a bit of change in your usual routine and you save money.

For it to make sense eskom would have to subsidise the cost of the dual meters. Out of curiosity - who pays for the new meter when you switch to prepaid?
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The metering system for off-peak calls is already in place - therefore it is a good idea.

Add to this the scarcity of decent electricians (and inspectors to check on them) to do such installations without allowing a bypass, then the suggestion becomes even more like we will be ready in time for 2010. It would take ages to do the upgrade. What would be usefull is to require all new meters to have the ability to measure peak/offpeak. In 5-10 years time it might just become a possibility to implement such differentiation.

Eskom is subsidising a lot of stuff nowadays - for which the electricity consumers will pay in the end. Or if government pays Eskom - the taxpayer.

Does one have the option of going prepaid in Pretoria?
 
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Shouldn't this be working the other way around. eskum scr@wed the pooch when they did their analysis. Surely eskum should be penalising them for not producing the power instead of the consumer having to fork out the money. We weren't the ones sitting on our collective @rses instead of doing our jobs properly
 
Factories (the big ones anyway) never shut down, except during maintenance and even then there's usually another plant to take up the slack.
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Yep I forgot to mention this... valid point

I am glad to see some really healthy debate here. We use gas at home for heating and we cook our dinner at around 6:30, or later depending how bad the traffic is. They can go suck eggs if they think I am going to eat later than that, I get hungry just like everyone else.

As for someone who made the comment about capped electricity, yep, only in South Africa... makes me sick:mad:
 
JTech said:
Yep I forgot to mention this... valid point

I am glad to see some really healthy debate here. We use gas at home for heating and we cook our dinner at around 6:30, or later depending how bad the traffic is. They can go suck eggs if they think I am going to eat later than that, I get hungry just like everyone else.

As for someone who made the comment about capped electricity, yep, only in South Africa... makes me sick:mad:
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Ok - but instead imagine the scenario where peak tariffs are at the level as what is charged now and off-peak is offered at a reduction. Nothing is stopping you from using electricity whenever you want - you'd just pay less during different times.
 
Fine and dandy. Their 'off peak' times are my times I'm at work. I wont get to use my electricity at home. When I am home, it's peak time. I have to shower/bath/cook/pc/watch telly what not. Not because I want to be a idiot and waiste power, but because I am at home, and I need to.

All that's happening now, is that businesses (which operates during the day) will be paying less for electricity because it's 'off peak' (as if), whilst at home, we will simply pay more for electricity because it's always peak.

This is completely the wrong way arround IMHO!!!
 
I really can't see how they would implement this. They will first have to install new meters for everybody and if I'm not mistaken they are still busy with their drive to replace old broken meters and a lot of meters are in fact still brand new. Then they will have to synchronise all the meters for peak/off-peak and make sure that they stay synchronised. And if the power goes out for too long the clocks will stop and they would have to synchronise all of them again. Doing all this will most likely lead to an increase in the peak rate so you can kiss your dreams of cheaper off-peak rates goodbye. I wonder which rocket scientist came up with this ingenious idea.
 
A good reason to braai every night and listen to a wind-up radio under the stars.

Time to change the lighting circuit in the house to 12V and buy white LED clusters.. huge power saving, uses a fraction of what anything else uses.. and lasts 15 years.
 
I really can't see how they would implement this. They will first have to install new meters for everybody and if I'm not mistaken they are still busy with their drive to replace old broken meters and a lot of meters are in fact still brand new. Then they will have to synchronise all the meters for peak/off-peak and make sure that they stay synchronised. And if the power goes out for too long the clocks will stop and they would have to synchronise all of them again. Doing all this will most likely lead to an increase in the peak rate so you can kiss your dreams of cheaper off-peak rates goodbye. I wonder which rocket scientist came up with this ingenious idea
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It is not impossible to do, they do send data over the mains you know, there are chipsets available for this purpose where low baudrate data can be reliably transferred over the mains. Synchronization would happen when the power comes back on, they would probably have sync broadcast packets which reset all the clocks and, AFAIK, a prepaid meter has battery backup anyway.

It is do-able, from an engineering standpoint but I have very little faith that Eskom can do it, they can't even fix a nuclear reactor without having to bring in people from overseas. So yes it will be a cock-up of note.

As for MaD's comment, yes, it is a solution but what about those of us who run businesses from home, dunno about you but I need stable power.

This whole thing is very ass-about-face if you ask me, why don't they do anything about those who abuse power first (esp. these home mechanics with their industrial welding machines in the residential areas of the West Rand) and the illegal connections and those who connect shopping trolleys to the mains as heaters, before making people who don't abuse power in the first place, suffer!
 
LOL It's true mate :) I saw them with my own eyes plug a shopping trolley into a DB with car jumper cables. Needless to say within 10 minutes the whole area was plunged into darkness and power was restored only the next day!
 
Eskom owes us a Rebate

bekdik said:
Interesting thinking - increase peak pricing.

Why not just REDUCE off-peak pricing? Achieves the same result without screwing the public.
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I think this is what they do in some overseas countries.

Paying consumers are already hard hit with carrying half of Southern Africa on their Electricity Bills.
How much of that 40 000MW is never recovered from neighbouring countries and people within South Africa that are free loading?
If one had to have a National Drive to encourage people to learn a philosophy of paying we may not have such a problem.
Eskom also needs to catch a wake up. They have been pu$$y footing around Government for ages now to give them money for more base load power stations.
Now we must carry the financial burden of their poor management.
People should not differentiate between Government and Eskom. They are essentially the same animal. :rolleyes:

Perhaps one of the best things that could have happened this year is the bolt in Reactor 2 at Koeberg. At least it has brought all the unstated facts to the surface. Would Eskom have been more forthcoming with the public had this not happened. It has been an eye opener for me and certainly the public in general.
Eskom actually owes us and not the other way around.
Loss of earnings, defrosted foodstuffs, inconvenience etc.
Someone try and measure that cost.

The consumers in South Africa need to stick together and tell Eskom to take a running jump. We pay enough already.
People want to know who is the biggest driver of inflation in this country.
It is Government.
 
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