Eskom drops winter bombshell

[kingrob]

Just have the powa disconnected at one of the ministers' houses in Johannesburg, and you'll see how quickly CityPower gets funding to build a new network.

The sad thing is that because maintenance are not carried out on Escom's network, it is just degrading more and more.

People saying that private companies should start providing electricity....we've been there. It's just way too expensive and the startup costs are pretty insane.

Our country and state companies are horribly run, like Telkom, SAA, Escom, etc. That need to change first, before we can try to fix the physical networks.

And I'm afraid we're running out of time, so you'll find that people will have to go back to candles and generators for daily use, with Escom's network collapsing.

However, by that time the Chinese will offer to replace the national grid, bring in their own people, and take control of our country.

 

[Toby]

Inverter Experience

Batteries apparently good for about 8 years when used with proper charge controller and inverter; swedish inverter and aussie charge controller in use.

Same here. I also run a "Swedish" i.e Studer Inverter and batteries, but without solar Panels. My goal is to mitigate Load Shedding.

Batteries are now 6 years old, and Instead of 18 hours "offgrid" that I had when purchased in early 2007, I now get about 10 hours before auto shutdown will kick in. So batteries now 6 years old and approx half storage capacity. I am expecting to replace batteries in 3 years time. I have 12 x 102AH Batteries in 24VDC configuration - Inverter is a 24vdc device

Water heating is a big 300 liter Solar geyser and Stove is a full gas Stove (including) oven.

I wired house (by certified Inverter Supplier Approved Electrician) as a high (not on Inverter) and low (on Inverter) current circuit. High Current Circuit feeds Tumble dryer and Washing machine and low current circuit (on Inverter) feeds everything else.

My Plan is to now add solar panels to the back of this.

Eskom, "bring it on"

 

[kingrob]

From a safety and security point, this is really bad news.

 

[Creag]

City power seem to be warning of coming outages too:
View attachment 47834

So \/ this \/ is where City Power would have us go this winter?

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

 

[Kosmik]

Lets assume a new power utility were to sign a contract RIGHT now to build a power station in SA.. what makes you think the build will be any quicker than something like Kusile?.. you would be looking at a minimum 5yr lead time from signing the construction contract to actually being able to provide power.

True but the sooner it's allowed the better, they're just prolonging the inevitable.

 

[ToxicBunny]

True but the sooner it's allowed the better, they're just prolonging the inevitable.

Agreed, and I fully want independent power companies in this country.. but I'm just tempering peoples outbursts with a bit of reality, and even my 5yr time frame is optimistic, it would probably be closer to 10 in this country.