This is how South Africa could be hit by a national blackout

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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This is how South Africa could be hit by a national blackout

In order for South Africa to avoid a national blackout, it is essential that the people working at Eskom’s National Control Centre and power station control rooms are competent and alert at a time when the grid is susceptible to outages.

This is according to power and mining expert Ted Blom, who recently spoke about Eskom’s situation on The Free Marketeers podcast hosted by the Free Market Foundation.

Simply put, a country-wide blackout can occur in the event that electricity demand exceeds supply, resulting in an imbalance and trip of the entire system.
 
“South Africa’s network is the most sophisticated and bigger than Europe’s – as far as I am aware,” Blom said

You want to tell me that the entire European grid with its multiple renewable sources, massive mix of old and new, cross border back-and-forth renewable balancing and the recent focus on getting smaller suburban sub-grids to be able to feed off electric vehicle plug-ins at night is less sophisticated?
I've seen more than enough documentaries on the European grid to call complete and utter BS on this!

It's like saying a volksie that drove over a landmine is "bigger and more sophisticated" than the Corolla parked in the garage.
K@k man.
 
RaptorSA said:
You want to tell me that the entire European grid with its multiple renewable sources and massive mix of old and new is less sophisticated?
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised how much of RSA is better than Europe but you don't see it because of the useless politicians in this country.

Not sure about the power grid though. Maybe 20 years ago.
 
Yet another article that offers another plan. Not a plan to stop the ANC looting of Eskom, no, a plan other than that.
 
If we did have a blackout it would be racist.....we'd have to call it something like 'load shedding level 99'
 
The point of load shedding is to not have a national blackout.

Anyway Pakistan or some other stan had a national blackout recently and it didn't take that long to start up again. So if that happens here it will just be like a regular Tuesday.
 
Blom said the question also needed to be asked over how long it would take to recover from a complete blackout. This would depend entirely on the amount of damage the grid suffered due to the trip.

“If there is minimal damage, Eskom can probably bring the grid up within two weeks,” Blom said.

“If it’s severe damage, you are talking about 10 years, or never.”

 
Here we go?

Consulting Manager​

Eskom​

1987 - 1989 . 2 years
Headed up team of 17 Post Grads internal consultants into all divisions of Conglomerate to sort out crises issues, restore order and implement solutions.
Click to expand...

Technical Advisory - Electricity​

Bain & Company​

Jan 2010 - Jan 2010 . 1 month
London, United Kingdom
Technical Analysis of the Electricity Crisis in Southern Africa
Click to expand...

McKinsey & Company​

Technical Advisor Electricity Costs​

Apr 2011 - Apr 2011 . 1 month
Singapore
Provide technical breakdown, structures and analysis of the Electricity scenarios in Southern Africa
Click to expand...
 
SHL said:
Blom said the question also needed to be asked over how long it would take to recover from a complete blackout. This would depend entirely on the amount of damage the grid suffered due to the trip.

“If there is minimal damage, Eskom can probably bring the grid up within two weeks,” Blom said.

“If it’s severe damage, you are talking about 10 years, or never.”
Click to expand...
Based on what analysis with what credentials or even peer reviewed?

He was last part of eskom in 1989 with most of his time spent as an "advisor" coming originally from legal over to mining.
 
Hanno Labuschagne said:
This is how South Africa could be hit by a national blackout

In order for South Africa to avoid a national blackout, it is essential that the people working at Eskom’s National Control Centre and power station control rooms are competent and alert at a time when the grid is susceptible to outages.

This is according to power and mining expert Ted Blom, who recently spoke about Eskom’s situation on The Free Marketeers podcast hosted by the Free Market Foundation.

Simply put, a country-wide blackout can occur in the event that electricity demand exceeds supply, resulting in an imbalance and trip of the entire system.
Click to expand...

I know some very pessimistic people, but Ted Blom is next level!
 
I am not aware of a single case where ramping up a national network has taken 2 weeks. Nigeria managed it in 3 days IIRC.
 
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