Eskom power blackout warning

[richjdavies]

Did Eskom give any indication how many businesses with 1 MW generating capacity have joined their pay for electricity program?

They only asked for 300 contracts, so not going to be too many... also it doesn't make sense for most people. It will take months to install the equipment Eskom want to install etc etc... Maybe this is why they think they'll be okay after April

 

[richjdavies]

Wow, everything I ever learnt about electricity is turned on its head by this article.

Yup - that's because you're thinking of a DEMAND side problem (i.e. too much electricity flowing through wires that get hot, start melting etc..), whereas what we have here is a SUPPLY side problem (not enough electricity flowing, meaning volts start dropping, generators start getting out of sync etc.)

Electricity isn't too different from water. Most of the grid is built with protection in place to stop the pipes bursting if the flow is too high; what we have is a drought...

 

[AthenianOwl]

Eskom rules out possibility of national blackout (13 January 2015)

Eskom warns of total national electricity blackout (Today)

:erm:

It's so obvious that Eskom's always been clueless as ****. Time to get the hell out of here when I have enough money.

 

[The_Ogre]

I think the biggest problem is the amount of time and effort it is going to take to restart the grid.

What people do not realise is it's not just a matter of flipping a switch and our supply is restored.

All substations all over the country has to be turned off. The supply then needs to be turned on in "islands", bearing in mind that the frequencies must not be out of sync once you connect these islands to one another.

This takes quite a bit of coordination.