How to fix South Africa's electricity problems

Kevin Lancaster said:
How to fix SA’s electricity problems

The South African Institute of Race Relations has provided some immediate remedies for South Africa and Eskom’s electricity problems
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I read the referenced article, and it makes some good points. But as long as this country's leaders and (political) decision-makers are hell-bent on milking the system to their own enrichment, at the expense of the ordinary taxpaying citizen, none of those 'good points' will ever get off the ground.
 
Another option is heavily subsidised photovoltaic panels for households, with power fed back into the grid during the day.
 
The person or group that drew up this report did not do their research properly. I see two errors, and I know next to nothing, so how can I trust the rest of the report?

1. "The obstacle to this now is that gas is more expensive than electricity" - complete rubbish. Cooking and space heating with LPG cost *significantly less* than electricity, even at the peak of the petroleum prices.

2. "Allow householders to sell electricity back to the grid" - has been the case for years. And if you have one of the traditional meters with a rotating disc, it's completely automatic: when you are generating more than you use, the disc goes backwards and your meter reading decreases. If it goes down between readings, i.e. you have a negative consumption for the month, and you are an Eskom customer, they pay you for that month. At a higher rate than they charge you for consumption. I don't know how local authorities (municipalities) deal with that situation - never bothered to find out since it doesn't affect me!
 
ChrisB said:
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2. "Allow householders to sell electricity back to the grid" - has been the case for years. And if you have one of the traditional meters with a rotating disc, it's completely automatic: when you are generating more than you use, the disc goes backwards and your meter reading decreases. If it goes down between readings, i.e. you have a negative consumption for the month, and you are an Eskom customer, they pay you for that month. At a higher rate than they charge you for consumption. I don't know how local authorities (municipalities) deal with that situation - never bothered to find out since it doesn't affect me!
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Most households have digital meters these days that does not support feeding back into the grid. Prepaid meters also do not support this. It might be the case that the older mechanical meters could do this but they are no longer installed.
Also the legality of feeding back into the grid is murky. I can't for instance just replace my meter with something that supports net metering, you have to get permission from your municipality.

So no I think you are the one that is misinformed.

Not to mention the non-existing tariff structures for these sort of feed back schemes. Very few municipalities actually have these clearly defined.
 
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ChrisB said:
The person or group that drew up this report did not do their research properly. I see two errors, and I know next to nothing, so how can I trust the rest of the report?

1. "The obstacle to this now is that gas is more expensive than electricity" - complete rubbish. Cooking and space heating with LPG cost *significantly less* than electricity, even at the peak of the petroleum prices.
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I suggest you do some math - electricity is cheaper than gas/kWh. (Gas works out about R2/kWh in SA.) You also have better efficiency if you use induction for cooking and an air conditioner for heating.
ChrisB said:
2. "Allow householders to sell electricity back to the grid" - has been the case for years. And if you have one of the traditional meters with a rotating disc, it's completely automatic: when you are generating more than you use, the disc goes backwards and your meter reading decreases. If it goes down between readings, i.e. you have a negative consumption for the month, and you are an Eskom customer, they pay you for that month. At a higher rate than they charge you for consumption. I don't know how local authorities (municipalities) deal with that situation - never bothered to find out since it doesn't affect me!
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All of the current sell back schemes to the grid have a metering scheme that allow them to individually meter export and import and that is how it should be done.
 
Force payment from ALL the non-paying Municipalities! oops sorry, this will cause ANC to loose votes, rioting, looting, etc.
 
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