Ideas to stop loadshedding - purely theoretical

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noob_saibot

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So, I thought I'd start this thread merely as an exercise in collective creativity.

Important to note: Absolutely none of our ideas will ever be implemented, but what is stopping us from using our creativity to address a this problem in a theoretical sense.

Let us put out a few rules:

  • Ideas should be easy to implement and not take +6 months
  • Ideas should not be capital/labour intensive
  • Ideas should be scalable to the point where we can shrug off over 1% of usage through implementation

I think I've got the basic rules covered.

My suggestion below...
 
I noticed that a forgotten problem of our government (among all the banter of other issues) is the issue of street lamps being on when they shouldn't be.

In fact, quite a few of them aren't switched on when they should be.

Now with the problem of electricity being at peak demand a lot of the times and thousands of street lamps being on during the day, why not just switch around +60% of the residential ones off (with road lamps being kept on for obvious safety reasons).

This may not work as I don't know whether street lamps are centralized or will require a labour-intensive effort to switch each 1 off separately.

Feel free to squash this idea with real risks associated with no residential lights (crime increase being 1 of them).
 
noob_saibot said:
I noticed that a forgotten problem of our government (among all the banter of other issues) is the issue of street lamps being on when they shouldn't be.

In fact, quite a few of them aren't switched on when they should be.

Now with the problem of electricity being at peak demand a lot of the times and thousands of street lamps being on during the day, why not just switch around +60% of the residential ones off (with road lamps being kept on for obvious safety reasons).

This may not work as I don't know whether street lamps are centralized or will require a labour-intensive effort to switch each 1 off separately.

Feel free to squash this idea with real risks associated with no residential lights (crime increase being 1 of them).
Click to expand...
not a bad idea

We applaud the concept of analyzing streetlighting practice "from scratch". Every well managed municipality should have standards to define when and where supplemental illumination is needed for safety, security, and/or convenience
Click to expand...
http://www.illinoislighting.org/de-energize.html

Our smart street light system consists of a LED light, a brightness sensor, a motion sensor and a short-distance communication network. The lights turn on before pedestrians and vehicles come and turn off or reduce power when there is no one. It will be difficult for pedestrians and drivers of vehicles to distinguish our smart street lamps and the conventional street lights, since our street lamps all turn on before they come.
Click to expand...
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2487202
 
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Every household could install a geyser timer to make sure the geyser only runs during the night when load is not an issue.

Businesses could install solar panels that could offset their power needs and lower their usage from the grid, ie self-provide a percentage of their needs.
 
Commercial zones should have their electricity rates tripled between 19:00 and 05:00. Some offices leave their lights on throughout the night. You'll be punishing them unfairly but we do have an emergency.
 
noob_saibot said:
I noticed that a forgotten problem of our government (among all the banter of other issues) is the issue of street lamps being on when they shouldn't be.
Click to expand...

Many areas deliberately leave street lights on as it makes cable theft more difficult.
 
Spread peak load by splitting time zones across the country. Stagger official work hours across businesses, factories, government departments and schools. Any heavy industrial process using electricity that is not time sensitive (ie not smelters) to be performed overnight after peak hours. Basically, manipulate timing to reduce peaks as much as possible.
 
Connect the bikes at the gyms to some sort of dyno that when people cycle they create energy which can be transformed to electricity. The gym can then create their own source of energy.
People get fit and healthy at the same time :)
 
How long will it take to get Pelindaba up and running again, if it can be done?
 
How ****ed up is this country that the general population has to come up with solutions for the energy crisis? :wtf:

Don't get me wrong, I love the initiative, but it's really not our responsibility to fix this. I think we've reached the point where we need international intervention.
 
kolaval said:
How long will it take to get Pelindaba up and running again, if it can be done?
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Does not compute. Pelindaba is not, and never was a power station. It has a very small nuclear reactor used primarily for research and for medical purposes. At some stage Pelindaba was responsible for enriching uranium or whatever they used in the South African nuclear arsenal, but still it wasn't a power station. At maximum output it can produce 20MW, which won't even put a dent in South Africa's current needs.

Although Pelindaba is not feasible, the road going forward is still nuclear. It is expensive to set up and is not a short-term solution, but it is the only way we can increase the base load generating capacity. Solar and wind a nice way to keep the greenies happy, but it is not efficient enough and currently it is still too expensive. They also do not contribute to base load generation. One of the most important things very few people consider is the fact that for both solar and wind the energy used in manufacturing of solar panels and wind turbines is quite high. It probably takes a couple of years for each solar panel and wind turbine to offset its manufacturing cost in terms of energy.

Hopefully one day all of this will change enough that we can all have solar panels and wind turbines on our houses, but for now it isn't the best option.
 
My bad then, I always assumed it to be a nuclear power plant. Stupid actually as koeberg is one and still in use.
 
Stevi said:
Connect the bikes at the gyms to some sort of dyno that when people cycle they create energy which can be transformed to electricity. The gym can then create their own source of energy.
People get fit and healthy at the same time :)
Click to expand...

Brazil has a prison like that - it is a good idea. Another is to shut down all escalators across south africa - fatties can take the stairs and lose weight while the infirm / with child / trolley pushers can take the lift like they always did. I suggested this to Eskom in 2008/9 and they ignored me. Idiots.
 
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