Two time-zone plan for SA?

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UnoPanelvan

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http://www.24.com/news/?p=tsa&i=856742

Now I've heard it all. WTF is the matter with these overnight wet dreamers, what a plan to save energy? all it would do is time shift the load and then creates so much confusion that it will cost the country more on the end of the day.
 
UnoPanelvan said:
http://www.24.com/news/?p=tsa&i=856742

Now I've heard it all. WTF is the matter with these overnight wet dreamers, what a plan to save energy? all it would do is time shift the load and then creates so much confusion that it will cost the country more on the end of the day.
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So the airlines could fly a lot longer each day?

LOL!:D

Watch the rand drop against the dollar after these words of wisdom.
 
I dont care much about two time zones but I wouldnt mind daylight savings time.
 
bwana said:
I dont care much about two time zones but I wouldnt mind daylight savings time.
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no damn it.

I have a hard time with it in the UK as it is. Just put the Western Cape on time 1 hour behind ours. The Sun rises there about 1 hour later and goes down one hour later. So what is the problem ?
 
Pitbull said:
no damn it.

I have a hard time with it in the UK as it is. Just put the Western Cape on time 1 hour behind ours. The Sun rises there about 1 hour later and goes down one hour later. So what is the problem ?
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How can you have a hard time with DST? :confused: Spring ahead - Fall back.
 
The one issue with having DST in a single country is doing business on a naional basis. It will impact sales and will stretch the working times of many in Johannesburg - particularly those in customer service and sales.
 
DJStealth said:
The one issue with having DST in a single country is doing business on a naional basis. It will impact sales and will stretch the working times of many in Johannesburg - particularly those in customer service and sales.
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Do you mean DST (daylight savings time) or Dual time zones? I think the minister seems to be using the two interchangeably
 
I think one hour is not enough to make a difference. If we could shift half of SA by say 4 hours, then the usual peak time would be less of a problem. With one hour, the two half of SA's peak times still overlap significantly.

As for the plane argument.:( I figure the only way they are going to fly longer is because they are not cleared to land for another hour due to DST.
 
wont do much good or bad imo.

articles also a little too short for me to take seriously
 
The US has 6 different time zones and they seem to manage fine. Ideally, we'd shift times around 6 hours but a one hour shift would still aid in the alleviation of the power issue. I really don't see how this could be so terrible. Anyone care to give some actual reasons with an ounce of thought behind them why it wouldn't work?
 
If putting the south an hour behind solves our power crisis then why the hell not, all it means is one day a year you have to wake up an our earlier and the other day you wake up an hour later..life goes on.
 
Umm...That's daylight savings time. This is separate time zones, ie. when it's 9:00AM in JHB, it's 8:00 in CT still. The result would be that peak load gets spread around, thus alleviating our problems a bit. Think of it like this: 4:00PM, everyone leaves work. By around 6-ish, most people are home and starting to cook dinner, watch tv, maybe take a shower, so the geezer's working, etc. Load on the power grid's high, as a result.
Now, shift CT to an hour later, so that for half the country, 6:00PM still arrives like normal, but relative to them, the other half only starts using the serious juice at 7:00PM. If you look at the power warnings on tv, you'll see that electricity usage starts to improve around the 7:00PM mark. By this reasoning, we'll use less, in total, at 6:00PM, JHB time, because half the country's still at work or on the way home, since it's 5:00PM for them and by the time it's 6:00PM for them, it's 7:00PM for the JHB-half, whom, by then, will be done preparing food and things. You're creating two smaller peaks instead of having one big one - two smaller peaks which the grid can handle better.
 
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Messugga said:
The US has 6 different time zones and they seem to manage fine. Ideally, we'd shift times around 6 hours but a one hour shift would still aid in the alleviation of the power issue. I really don't see how this could be so terrible. Anyone care to give some actual reasons with an ounce of thought behind them why it wouldn't work?
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Its the implementation where it becomes an issue. Those US companies began operating in an "time-shift" environment and will more than likely have offices in each of their major client areas.

We dont always find the same in SA. SME's dont necessarily have offices all over the country and it will stretch resources by introducing time-shifting. Sure, it can only stretch employees by at the most 1 hour, but it will still have an impact.

Quantifying that impact I cannot do but it seems a somewhat selfish reason on Eskom's behalf to expect the entire country to introduce dual time zones which will have some serious financial and operational implications, because they cannot do their job correctly.
 
Well, Eskom's a company, not a dictatorship. All they can do is recommend! A lot of businesses don't NEED to be available from elsewhere in the country until the end of the day. Cinema's, banks, gyms, schools, some governmental offices, shopping centers(a big user of the juice), etc. Localized places of work would have no trouble with the switch. I'd actually like some examples of places that would really suffer! If it's really that important to buy something, just phone an hour earlier and get your stuff sorted. I don't really see how having to wait an hour to perform a transaction would mean the end of the world, if you're around 1000km away anyway.
 
Messugga said:
Well, Eskom's a company, not a dictatorship. All they can do is recommend! A lot of businesses don't NEED to be available from elsewhere in the country until the end of the day. Cinema's, banks, gyms, schools, some governmental offices, shopping centers(a big user of the juice), etc. Localized places of work would have no trouble with the switch. I'd actually like some examples of places that would really suffer! If it's really that important to buy something, just phone an hour earlier and get your stuff sorted. I don't really see how having to wait an hour to perform a transaction would mean the end of the world, if you're around 1000km away anyway.
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Well the whole dual time zone thing doesnt seem to hold much ground relating to power consumption and reduction so I would suggest that their drastic suggestions be thought out next time instead of thumb-sucked.

I dont know all businesses in SA so I cannot suggest exactly which of them will be severely affected and which more than others as I am not privy to all businesses operational activities. However to suggest that nobody will be severely affected is naive and your example of calling an hour later or earlier is just not a solution. Its a governmental type solution - make the consumer/citizen pay! We have been put out enough already with the power cuts. And your localized business examples completly ignores B2B companies who generally have to operate on a national basis. Service based companies and software companies.

Now Eskom expect power cuts to be reduced by introducing dual time zones? Ah, I am just against the principle of such a drastic change for a simple cock-up they made unfortunately.

As for the issues that it might create, the 1st that springs to mind is an IT issue for those working on centralised databases and servers. I cant really comment much more from an IT perspective as I am not qualified to do so. Maybe someone else can highlight what/if any issues might arise from an IT pespective?

Maybe I am making a mountain out of a mole-hill here, but travel, business and communication would be affected - ot sure but would ERP systems be affected by dual time zones? Although that would be a service provider issue. As a director, I often hold meetings with a few representatives I have in Durbz and Cape Town. Half the time this is done IN Durbz and CPT and would mean I might lose an hour of each day when I left from CPT back to JHB? I dont like being put out like that.
 
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