Was in the little town of Bloemhof today, about 300 km's from JHB on the N12. Many of the businesses are refusing to use the supplied power IF/WHEN its on, preferring to keep the gen.sets running. Well, if you have a 2 hour on, 2 hour off cycle every damn day, you tend to think "out of the box". Thats the electrical box on the wall. How many larger businesses who have proper standby plants opted to do same, I wonder.
Also, with the new municipal structures (one name and 2 or 3 towns in the municipality), the IT infrastructure is a central billing system in one town, with the others linking in via different means and methods to it. The scheduling makes that when HeadOffice has power, the others are without, and vice-versa. OK, your electrical bill might not get processed... but so it impacts on many other services too. Never before was there a need for the Municipalities to have massive stand-by systems for this kinda scenario. Bottom line - basic service delivery is also impacted. Did eskom think about that? Muni's not billing consumers, not gettign money, not able to pay the bulk electricity account.
Crisis in the making - fuel shortages. When do the refineries go into shutdown for maintenance? Leaving us powerless, fuel less, hopeless ?
Surely Eishkom should do emergency damage control and stop exporting. Shed the neighbours in time of need, not your own people. That will solve the crisis: 3000 mW spare during peak. We are the most industrialised country in this part of Africa, let those less fortunate live with this shedding.