How Eskom stole Christmas!

[semiautomatix]

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=139&art_id=vn20081212114120739C683188

Residents who go all-out to decorate their homes for the Christmas season have been cautioned to keep down their electricity usage by switching off unnecessary appliances to accommodate the supply shortage and help avoid power cuts.

No fairy lights for you!

"You're a mean one, Eskom
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel.
Eskom."

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Thought the Grinch stole Christmas?

Lawley Str in Pretoria is its usual self with lots of blinkenlights

 

[ToxicBunny]

Ook : Its alright for cities to waste power... since they don't pay the power bills.. but us lowly residents... we must save every watt since it clearly can break the entire network....

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

Ook : Its alright for cities to waste power... since they don't pay the power bills.. but us lowly residents... we must save every watt since it clearly can break the entire network....

*nods*

it's like that news article from last week where they warned of blackouts being a distinct possibility in January because that's when businesses open again so us residents better save electricity now. Like, uhm, you've just stated that it's the businesses that will be chowing the power but we have to suffer

 

[ToxicBunny]

Yeah, saw that.... fscking makes my bloody boil..

 

[BTTB]

I don't believe Eskom for a minute. Next year if there is Load Shedding, will just be a precursor to the next set of Tariff Hikes. The Load Shedding and the talk of how much the new Power Stations are going to cost Eskom is just a means to an end to justify the Electricity Tariff Increases above CPI or whatever measure the Regulator uses.

Has it not occurred to anyone that if We/South Africa are using Eskom's full capacity then basically Eskom have maximised their profits on what Capacity they have, plus Eskom got an almost 50% tariff increase through the regulator this year which has been reflecting on everyone's bills since about August. I know my Electricity Bill has jumped significantly.
I personally think this is a huge amount of money that Eskom are collecting under the guise of building new Power Stations.

In the past I think the bulk of new expansion came from taxes. So what has our taxes achieved for us other than staring at ever increasing bills over the short to medium term. And the way things are going in this country who knows what is happening to the money that is collected.

Once again and as per usual the consumer is left to foot the bill.

 

[-toady-]

I don't believe Eskom for a minute. Next year if there is Load Shedding, will just be a precursor to the next set of Tariff Hikes. The Load Shedding and the talk of how much the new Power Stations are going to cost Eskom is just a means to an end to justify the Electricity Tariff Increases above CPI or whatever measure the Regulator uses.

Has it not occurred to anyone that if We/South Africa are using Eskom's full capacity then basically Eskom have maximised their profits on what Capacity they have, plus Eskom got an almost 50% tariff increase through the regulator this year which has been reflecting on everyone's bills since about August. I know my Electricity Bill has jumped significantly.
I personally think this is a huge amount of money that Eskom are collecting under the guise of building new Power Stations.

In the past I think the bulk of new expansion came from taxes. So what has our taxes achieved for us other than staring at ever increasing bills over the short to medium term. And the way things are going in this country who knows what is happening to the money that is collected.

Once again and as per usual the consumer is left to foot the bill.

*applauds...

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

yep, well stated BTTB ..... sad but true in this country

 

[Syndyre]

I don't believe Eskom for a minute. Next year if there is Load Shedding, will just be a precursor to the next set of Tariff Hikes. The Load Shedding and the talk of how much the new Power Stations are going to cost Eskom is just a means to an end to justify the Electricity Tariff Increases above CPI or whatever measure the Regulator uses

Yeah, they need to maximise their bonuses.

In the past I think the bulk of new expansion came from taxes. So what has our taxes achieved for us other than staring at ever increasing bills over the short to medium term. And the way things are going in this country who knows what is happening to the money that is collected.

Once again and as per usual the consumer is left to foot the bill.

It makes more sense for expansion and other costs to be funded by electricity tariffs rather than subsidising them through taxes. Whether or not the tariff increase was really justified or not is another question. That's the problem with a monopoly, govt needs to liberalise the electricity market. I also can't believe there hasn't been any demand destruction since the electricity price hike.

 

[.Froot.]

Unfortunately life sucks when it comes to this...

 

[BTTB]

Levy

Another thing.

When it comes to Town Planning, the Council will charge a pro rata charge on a Development known as a Development Levy which goes to fix and build roads etc.

Big Developers and this also includes the Mining Houses should be paying levies on every major new Development as it is essentially these two ingredients that have taken us to a whisper/bolt of running out of power.

Did the new Coega Developers pay for Electricity Capacity?
Does BHP Billiton pay a price per unit of Electricity comparable to what residential users pay?
Did the ANC plan for Mass Urbanisation?

More questions than answers.
Perhaps asking questions now will not help, but jeepers when all the Country's Advisor's have been nagging Government/Eskom to do something 10/15 years ago they turned ignorant and thought these people were just talking for the sake of talking. Or was the Government short sited in thinking? Like Zimbabwe, the problem will just go away and do an ostrich on the situation.
It takes action and hard work to make a country. The ANC Government have a lot to learn. In the mean time the consumer has bills laying around at home that they cannot afford as a result.

We can draw a comparison here with our Department of Communications. Everyone talks to the Government, the Media bashes then, MyADSL has been going on for 5 years. Yet nobody listens. They are simply flipping deaf.
Stubborn. Hiding behind Red Tape and Bureaucracy. Surely We cannot all be wrong on the fact that Minister Ivy is a lame duck Minister and should be removed.
We are now paying for being so far behind the curve on bridging the digital divide in this country that the average person in this country is barely able to even switch on a computer.

 

[BTTB]

I also can't believe there hasn't been any demand destruction since the electricity price hike.

This is what has been niggling me too.