Is Eskom load-shedding again?

[Flanders]

This is the forth power cut this week for me - for suspiciously regular periods too. I've been talking to people in the greater area and it seems they too have experienced similar on their respective grids. It seems like this is Eskom doing load-shedding on sly but then maybe my extreme irritation is getting me paranoid. JHB northern suburbs.

 

[reactor_sa]

The power went out here for exactly an hour on Saturday while I was at work, I suspect it was load shedding. Jhb, East rand.

 

[marine1]

Same here at work and at home, they saying no load shedding but this is Eskom......bunch of liars

 

[Arthur]

Shedding? Not officially.

I had two Eskom guys visit my house last week to check out the 8kW PV array and how the system manages exports to grid. They both said that planning was already advanced to start implementing 'shedding' from late January 2013. "Basically, we've run out of power, and Medupi is still a long way off", the one guy said.

For a houseowner spending > R2k/m power bill with some capital, the best investment you can make is to get a PV array with grid-tied inverter using the grid as battery. In pure financial terms this makes sense, load shedding notwithstanding.

Consider:

Spend R250k on a PV array.
Saves R25k/R30k after tax, increasing by 15-20% a year (as the cost of power rises).
Your consumption is capitalised (yes, from near-liquid to immovable, but still capital).

Do your own sums.

 

[upup]

eskom not but council yes. when they go over a peak, they cut you to save money.