Plans to reduce electricity prices

Sinbad said:
What pisses me off is the deals struck with the aluminium smelters.
These guys use MEGAWATTS... Many of them. And they are paying below cost. And the money the smelters make goes directly offshore - there is hardly any benefit to south africa from these energy vampires.
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To put it into context: SA produced 800000 tons of aluminium in 2010.
each kg of aluminium takes about 14kwh of electricity to produce.
This is an average of 1280MW every hour of every day of the year, or the equivalent of about 600 000 houses.
 
Firstly, kick the useless people in council who let the streetlights burn in daylight out on their ass, to reduce the wastage.
then come up with a decent scheme, as elsewhere in the world, where people can produce their own electricity (solar, wind, etc) and have a proper system in place where excess electricity can be fed back into the grid and the user paid.
we have to start looking at this.
have heard many cases where private individuals and companies produce their own electricity, and excess, but Eskom is too greedy to pay a decent price
 
Sinbad said:
What pisses me off is the deals struck with the aluminium smelters.
These guys use MEGAWATTS... Many of them. And they are paying below cost. And the money the smelters make goes directly offshore - there is hardly any benefit to south africa from these energy vampires.
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They're not paying below cost.... it's just a lot easier (read cheaper) to get the power to them.... they don't need all the transformers and kilometers of power lines like you need to get the power to municipalities.
 
CeeBee said:
Firstly, kick the useless people in council who let the streetlights burn in daylight out on their ass, to reduce the wastage.
then come up with a decent scheme, as elsewhere in the world, where people can produce their own electricity (solar, wind, etc) and have a proper system in place where excess electricity can be fed back into the grid and the user paid.
we have to start looking at this.
have heard many cases where private individuals and companies produce their own electricity, and excess, but Eskom is too greedy to pay a decent price
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Jeez. I looked at replacing PART of my usage (my pool pump) with solar energy. I was quoted in the region of R50k - for 1kw of capacity.
 
froot said:
They're not paying below cost.... it's just a lot easier (read cheaper) to get the power to them.... they don't need all the transformers and kilometers of power lines like you need to get the power to municipalities.
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The R9,5-billion accounting loss on embedded derivatives, which is what is hurting most, is the result of commodity-and-currency-linked pricing arrangements with mining giant BHP Billiton’s aluminium smelters in South Africa and Mozambique.

“The year-end valuation of these contracts – embedded derivatives – resulted in an accounting loss of R9,5-billion. They are clearly not sustainable and Eskom will be engaging these customers with a view to achieving more equitable pricing,” new Eskom chairperson Bobby Godsell wrote in his maiden message from the chair.
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If you're making a R9.5bn loss on commodity-price linked derivative contracts with your clients, then you are selling to them below cost.
Did you know that the price the big smelters pay for electricity is linked to the price of aluminium? During the commodity slump, the price of ally plummeted - but the price of electricity was going up.
 
CeeBee said:
Firstly, kick the useless people in council who let the streetlights burn in daylight out on their ass, to reduce the wastage.
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AFAIK - they do this so the cables arn't stolen... awesome country :rolleyes:
 
There's a big difference between the article headline of
Plans to lower electricity prices
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and the wording in the article body, i.e.
The department of energy, relevant departments and Eskom are looking at other ways of reducing electricity tariff increases
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:whistle:
They are not the same thing. So electricity prices will continue to go up.
 
"Jeez. I looked at replacing PART of my usage (my pool pump) with solar energy. I was quoted in the region of R50k - for 1kw of capacity"
yaa, me also looked, prices are still crazy.... perhaps Eskom can start with arranging for acceptible pricing on solar equipment, or some subsidizing to promote it... win-win for everybody
 
dkhaley said:
How about privatization and competition?
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They've tried that (why do you think we're in this situation now?). It's not sustainable. If you look at the profit margins on selling electricity.... now consider you have to fund, build and maintain one or two electricity plants.... and suddenly you realise you still have profit margins that are so small that it's not worthwhile going into business.
Why can small bakeries not compete with ie PnP? Making more costs less per unit than making substantially less.
 
Eskom / Gov might start by taking down the illegal power lines I see running across roads in plain sight. They do absolutely nothing to stop the theft of electricity (not even going the safety aspect route) and we end up footing the bill. In fact, I often see Eskom vans parked right underneath these over-head cables whilst busy with maintenance / repairs on the legit part of the power grid. This is only one township, I can't even imagine that it would be any different in other townships. Surely it must cost Eskom a bundle in lost revenue, which we are freaking paying for!
 
MFour said:
Eskom / Gov might start by taking down the illegal power lines I see running across roads in plain sight. They do absolutely nothing to stop the theft of electricity (not even going the safety aspect route) and we end up footing the bill. In fact, I often see Eskom vans parked right underneath these over-head cables whilst busy with maintenance / repairs on the legit part of the power grid. This is only one township, I can't even imagine that it would be any different in other townships. Surely it must cost Eskom a bundle in lost revenue, which we are freaking paying for!
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But as I recently discovered - its their right :rolleyes:

When you're poor - you have a constitutional right to everything everyone else pays for.
 
Sinbad said:
Jeez. I looked at replacing PART of my usage (my pool pump) with solar energy. I was quoted in the region of R50k - for 1kw of capacity.
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The recent elec eng magazine WattNow had an excellent article claiming we can get buy with far smaller pool pump motors running for shorter periods. One option is to use a variable speed motor and only run the kreepy for 1 hour per day, on a higher speed.

I think it's definitely worth pursuing. As the article says, if every pool owner can cut power consumption, the effect on peak energy demand will be signicant.
 
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entrepr said:
The recent elec eng magazine Watts Up had an excellent article claiming we can get buy with far smaller pool pump motors running for shorter periods. One option is to use a variable speed motor and only run the kreepy for 1 hour per day, on a higher speed.

I think it's definitely worth pursuing. As the article says, if every pool owner can cut power consumption, the effect on peak energy demand will be signicant.
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I run my pump 6 hours a day, from 9am to 3pm. It's nicely off peak, and I have solar heating so this time is most efficient in terms of usability of the pool.

I can't run my kreepy any faster. It already tries to climb out the pool :/
 
Zuma said: “We need an electricity price path which will ensure that Eskom and the industry remain financially viable and sustainable, but which remains affordable, especially for the poor”.
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Fsck the poor, why have you allowed Eskom to deteriorate so much that we're having a crisis now in the first place?
 
If they reduce it, wont it mean it will be harder for them to find ways of increasing capacity?

I think Eskom should allow people who hjave solar panels, wind, etc, to se3ll their electricity back into the system
 
ngadao08 said:
If they reduce it, wont it mean it will be harder for them to find ways of increasing capacity?

I think Eskom should allow people who hjave solar panels, wind, etc, to se3ll their electricity back into the system
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+1

even emailed eskom and the metro about it, but no response ... shows you how important you are to them :(
 
From what I understand...its the municipalities that are really making the killing from the electricity prices. In CT we pay around R1.60 per Kw/h. From this Eskom receives around 50-60c. Electricity is one of the biggest revenue 'generators' for the municipalities. These are the institutions we must take to task for the high prices.
 
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