The 10 year electricity curse!

antowan

antowan

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http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-25_2238346

Cape Town - How long will the present Eskom load shedding continue? Ten years at least.

Because there is such an acute shortage of generation capacity, because electricity demand is growing steadily and because it takes at least 6 years to build the baseload stations we need, it will be 10 years or more before we have sufficient reserve margin to end the load shedding.

On Tuesday President Mbeki apologised publicly for the power shortages, saying the government had not allowed Eskom to build new stations when it wanted to.

He said, "Eskom was right. We were wrong". Now this is a jolly decent thing for him to say, but it is wrong on two counts. First, Mbeki suggests that it was rather difficult to tell whether we needed new power stations.

It wasn't. It was blindingly obvious. Second, he is too chivalrous in taking all the blame upon his government; half must fall on Eskom.
 
Gross mismanagement by Government and Eskom. I blame the rushed implementation of BEE at the expense of knowledge. The chiefs of Eskom should be fired without any delay!

An emergency development effort should be launched with emergency funds released by Trevor Manual in order to build clone generators of existing modern generating facilities elsewhere.

Planning and zoning should be fast tracked but not at the expense of quality workmanship, which would save us a lot of time in terms of upkeep and maintenance.
 
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Wonder how big a bonus the eskom big wigs will be giving themselves this year?
 
bwana said:
Wonder how big a bonus the eskom big wigs will be giving themselves this year?
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As far as I am concerned they should be getting nothing and neither should all the other members of Cabinet who prevented Eskom from building new Base Load Power Stations.

The Bolt at Koeberg was the wake up call. Eskom was trying to tell Government that we were facing a Capacity problem long ago, but as usual Politicians who think they know better shrugged it off. This coming from a Government Entity in itself?
Now go figure how the rest of us must feel, even some of the Opposition Members in Parliament, when they point out something obvious to the nincompoops in power, but they think they know it all and brush it off.
More money is lost in this country through Government Ineptitude than all the Budget Surpluses over the last couple of years. It doesn't matter if the Country has tons of extra cash as some fool in Government will find some way of other to mess that situation up.
Ignorance I say. Ignorance.

While Mr Mbeki is admitting things in Public, he may as well take the dive and admit he was wrong about AIDS and is sorry for all the suffering that is taking place for the people with the disease.

Before the next decade is out we will encounter more of these sorts of things happening, simply because the people in charge haven't the skills to recognise a problem when it arises.
A lot can be put down to the lack of lateral thinking I am afraid.
 
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No matter what we say, it's not going to change anything....
The ANC has successfully ruined the country in 13 years, which took more than 300 years to build......

Africa is the wastepot of the planet, and we get to live it..... :sick:
 
Dear Thabo

We've already got enough problems and excuses. We need solutions.

Kind regards,
South Africa
 
Ten more years of power cuts

http://www.24.com/news/?p=tsa&i=788390

Is it the elections? Is is just they realized the people is onto their media and "wipe it under the carpet" scam!

First from a "perceived crime" situation to Maximum force in a few weeks
Now


On Tuesday President Mbeki apologized publicly for the power shortages, saying the government had not allowed Eskom to build new stations when it wanted to.

He said, "Eskom was right. We were wrong". Now this is a jolly decent thing for him to say, but it is wrong on two counts. First, Mbeki suggests that it was rather difficult to tell whether we needed new power stations.

It wasn't. It was blindingly obvious. Second, he is too chivalrous in taking all the blame upon his government; half must fall on Eskom
Click to expand...

Bl@@dy Idiot..s

Now where is those forum members that had so much to say recently re the power supply and even quoted that some refurbished (priorly closed) power stations will come back on-line soon and that was supposed to be the salvation.

Now who was right and who was wrong, Eskom? :D

Now only if...

Hospitals (lifts)
Roads
A new government ... (China please)
Army
Police
Schools and education
The list will grow tooo long

can be admitted and restored to first world standards
 
TiredOfWaiting said:
How is that going to help anyone? Firing those with experience and appointing totally inexperienced people in their place is not really a great idea.
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He means the inexperienced chiefs - and those who are just on board for the gravy.

Best to have an experienced chief who'll shoulder responsibility at the helm rather than one who's out playing golf all day long and knows diddly squat.
 
bwana said:
Wonder how big a bonus the eskom big wigs will be giving themselves this year?
Click to expand...

I hope they get nothing.

If they do give themselves a big, fat bonus, I'll be really upset.

Besides, I won't blame their workers for striking when this do happen.
 
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BTTB said:
The Bolt at Koeberg was the wake up call. Eskom was trying to tell Government that we were facing a Capacity problem long ago, but as usual Politicians who think they know better shrugged it off. This coming from a Government Entity in itself?
Now go figure how the rest of us must feel, even some of the Opposition Members in Parliament, when they point out something obvious to the nincompoops in power, but they think they know it all and brush it off.
More money is lost in this country through Government Ineptitude than all the Budget Surpluses over the last couple of years. It doesn't matter if the Country has tons of extra cash as some fool in Government will find some way of other to mess that situation up.
Ignorance I say. Ignorance.
Click to expand...

I don't think it was ignorance. As I understand it, they were planning to deregulate the industry, and therefore were preventing Eskom from building more power stations, partly so that they wouldn't become more entrenched, and partly so that there would be gaps for the new companies to fill. Then they changed their mind about deregulation.

Obviously it was a bad decision. But it wasn't just because they didn't realise we might possibly need more power at some point in the future.
 
Cathryn said:
I don't think it was ignorance. As I understand it, they were planning to deregulate the industry, and therefore were preventing Eskom from building more power stations, partly so that they wouldn't become more entrenched, and partly so that there would be gaps for the new companies to fill. Then they changed their mind about deregulation.

Obviously it was a bad decision. But it wasn't just because they didn't realise we might possibly need more power at some point in the future.
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That is also my understanding of the events. :)
But somehow the thing went pear shape in a matter of 3 to 5 years as a result of the growth in the Economy etc.
 
Come to think of it, this admission by T-bone is actually a landmark moment in South African politics. This is the first time that the ANC did not blame one of their cock-ups on apartheid. I think this is very positive indeed.

Considering the fact that the apartheid-era electricity supply network was able to outlast apartheid itself by thirteen years and considering the huge growth in demand in the interim, this fact is shining testament to the excellence of the engineers that once worked for Escom before they were replaced by people that were selected based on race.
 
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