Blackouts become a way of life
WHAT South Africans have experienced in the past 12 days with load-shedding has already been experienced in a number of other industrialised and developing countries, with many others joining us every week.
The big stories of blackouts have come from Brazil, Cuba, Pakistan, Chile, the US state of California, the Baltic states, Iraq and Uganda, and will include Tajikistan, Rwanda, Zambia and those on the South African grid.
In modern industrialised states, the crises were related to attempts to privatise the power sector, or the failure of governments to plan properly — or introduce alternative forms of power generation to those that dominated — hydro schemes, coal or nuclear plants.
In many of these cases there are lessons to be learned, but most have had to resolve their crises through huge new investment in power generation.
Blackouts in Brazil affected 170-million people.
The government introduced rationing to make immediate cuts of 20%. The 2001 crisis was the result of a drought affecting its hydroelectric schemes — which generated more than 93% of its power.
Rationing affected economic hubs like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the federal government in Brasilia. Regions responsible for 78% of Brazil’s gross domestic product, and 67% of its exports were affected.
During rationing, companies faced penalties included having their power cut for three days. If they failed to conserve a second time, power was cut for six days. Those who did conserve energy were reimbursed; while others saw their monthly power bill climb dramatically.
Cuba, after a complete breakdown of its ageing power grid in 2004, with 248 days of blackouts that year, was able to eliminate the problem within two years.
It did this partly through the immediate introduction of 6500 container-sized emergency generators. These formed part of a $250bn expenditure on technology that included introducing 22 million energy-saving appliances.
Pakistan’s power crisis has resulted from damage done to transmission systems in the aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The country faces an acute shortage of energy, coupled with unprecedented hikes in the prices of essential consumer items and nonavailability of flour — a staple food.
For the past seven years the country has faced a severe shortage of electricity during summer and winter. The Nation newspaper reported electricity production of about 7000MW, compared with the normal requirement of 9000 MW, and 10000MW 10500MW in peak hours.
Total gas output is about 2,9 billion cubic feet compared with demand of 4-billion cubic feet. There has been a complete failure to build new power plants.
Pakistan’s textile industry is on the brink of collapse — exports valued at $1bn could become a casualty of the energy crisis.
European governments slow on the uptake, are the Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
These countries have depended mostly on one nuclear power station built by the Russians at Ignalina. It is of the same design as the ill-fated Chernobyl reactor.
Now, in terms of Lithuania's EU accession treaty, it must be closed down by the end of next year, almost a decade before its designers envisaged it being decommissioned.
According to official figures, in 2005 the 1500MW plant supplied almost three-quarters of Lithuania's total electricity output, with enough left over to export some to Latvia. The states have agreed to construct a new nuclear power plant at Ignalina jointly, but it will not be operational before 2015.
All three have sought ways to bridge the energy gap — much of the attention focusing on linking the Baltic’s energy grids to European networks with links to Finland, Sweden and Poland. Each is now planning new, conventional power stations in a bid to boost their energy independence.
Albanians are now going most of the day without electricity as the country's hydroelectric plants cannot keep up with demand, and supplies from abroad do not bridge the gap.
The World Bank says that in a decade, the percentage of people in sub-Saharan Africa who do not have access to electricity could jump from 20% to about 60%.
CNN correspondent Nick Valencia reports that 95% of Ugandans do not have access to electricity from the national grid.
Uganda is run on hydroelectricity, and the country's significant economic development has simply overwhelmed its energy supply.
Reliable electricity is a problem everywhere in Uganda, and the power crisis has much to do with the country's source of energy, the Nile River.
Some believe the effects of global warming have decreased the country's rainfall, and reduced the Nile's water level. Others argue low water levels are caused by over exploitation of dams. Whichever it is, low water levels mean that Uganda's hydroelectric turbines run well below capacity.
The energy shortage is blamed for the high cost of power in Uganda — and that, in turn, has been crimping economic growth in the country.
In China, the government has been called on to intervene in a power crisis in which power shortages for this year are expected to reach about 8000MW, exceeding the record shortage of 6260MW set in 2005.
Thirteen provincial power grids have already imposed restrictions on electricity consumption, with shortages presently amounting to 6963MW.
Both India and Japan have major campaigns to enhance their power supplies.
India is offering up to 80% incentives for setting up solar power plants, while Japan wants 30% of the population to be on solar energy within 22 years.
“In many of these (global) cases there are lessons to be learned, but most have had to resolve their crises through huge new investment in power generation”
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