Is Load Shedding Still Happening?
Load shedding isn’t going away. No one is kidding themselves by saying anything different. So, doesn’t it seem better to huddle together and talk strategy, rather than slumping over in our collective seats? We might not be able to avoid load shedding entirely, but how can we ease it?
The game plan that Eskom has set out will be at least two years in the making (Eskom released a strategy for maintenance and repair that will take at least two years to achieve). Considering their past reliability, we would consider this time frame as a minimum rather than the maximum. There are, however, things that can be done right now to ease the pain of load shedding.
The Constant State of Load Shedding
When load shedding started back in 2005, South Africa was full of jokes. We took the situation with a pinch of salt, because it was amusing to be forced into candle-lit dinners and braais for breakfast.
We saw ingenuity take hold of our nation, as people strove to circumvent load shedding hassles. Gas stoves saw an immense rise in popularity, electricity-free slow cookers were invented, many began to hand-wash their clothes, and solar powered solutions began to gain more attention.
But our good humour for this ingenuity ran dry some time during 2019. There’s only so many candle-lit dinners you can have in succession to still consider them enjoyable. The time came when Eskom stopped seeming amateurish or negligent. It became clear that they were entirely inadequate and chronically maimed. Defeat began to roll into our national mind-set regarding power supply.
The future isn’t set to change this currently. The new COO of Eskom, Jan Oberholzer, has informed us that they “do want to raise tariffs by 16%, and yes, it will pose a significant challenge to the economy”. For the 2019/2020 financial year alone, Eskom has already secured a 9.41% tariff increase. Not to mention the 4.5% increase in 2018. Let’s not forget that Nersa (National Energy Regulator of SA) already permitted to hike their tariffs by another 8% in 2020.
Regardless of whether or not South Africans can even afford to pay 10 to 15 percent more for electricity, especially considering the fact that we have had 418 hours of load shedding in 2019 alone, Nersa has also granted Eskom Tariff hikes in 2020/2021 of 8.1% and a further 5.22% for the financial year of 2021/2022.
The ugly truth of load shedding is that we will be subject to regular rolling blackouts for at least another two years.
The Impact of Load Shedding on Business and Economy
While load shedding has impacted larger businesses, they have had the resources to navigate around their issues. But small to medium businesses have not been so lucky, and have been hit harder.
Consider that operating on Stage 2 alone, from a Monday to a Thursday, that’s 63 hours of load shedding (and that doesn’t account for the unplanned power cuts). It’s not just that companies have lost revenue and clients, and it’s not just about stock loss in local restaurant fridges, or employees having to be laid off from the small-scale home based factories who can’t keep operations running. That’s bad enough. But think about the medicines or vaccines at small veterinary practices or independent one-room clinics that might no longer be viable. There are countless other ways that small businesses in South Africa have been impacted load shedding.
Many of our small businesses are suffering around us, and we need to understand the larger impact it has had and will continue to have.
Some of the most widely felt effects of load shedding on small to medium businesses are:
- Loss of WiFi and often mobile connection, leading to card machines and wider shop systems being unable to operate.
- Failure of security systems and digital inventory management systems, leading to increased theft and mismanaged stock.
- Failure of lighting, electric appliances, or cold storage, leading to most restaurants without access to alternative power shutting down for hours in a day (or losing valuable stock due cold storage failure).
On the 5th of February 2020, Nedbank economists stated in a research note that the critical round of power cuts in the first half of December likely propelled SA’s Economy into a recession. They stated that “… stage 6 blackouts at a time when factories were finalising inventories before closing for the festive season were most likely the straw that broke the camel’s back”.
This view is supported by the World Bank, who has projected that our economic growth will go down to under 1% in 2020. The question tugging at every South African’s mind is, just how much money has Eskom shaved off our economy? The Efficient Group’s Economists published new data that summarised the ramifications of load shedding on our economy in 2019: “We find that the cost of load shedding has reduced our GDP growth by roughly 0.30% in 2019. This translates to R8.5 billion of real, inflation-adjusted Rands”.
In the below SABC interview, Dawie Roodt (chief economist of Efficient Group) discusses the country’s economy as he highlights and makes plain many of the current and future problems we face.
Yet, our situation isn’t entirely bleak. As a country desperate for growth and change, we can fight back with some incredibly powerful options.
Your Alternative Power Options
The use of solar power is not a new idea in South Africa. There have been companies providing solar solutions for a long time. But the concept only truly took off in 2016, largely due to load shedding and Eskom’s failures that motivated the public into seeking alternative power sources.
In this hunt for alternative power, there seemed to be three driving motivators in securing a new power source:
- Increasing electricity rates and the decreasing reliability of a national power supply.
- The overall cost of pollution to our health and the planet’s sustainability from fossil-fuel power sources (Eskom and Sasol account for more than 50% of South Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions).
- The long-term sustainability of whichever alternative power is chosen.
We know that 92% of South Africa’s energy is dependent on coal, but that the availability of coal to be mined is depleting rapidly, which results in coal becoming increasingly expensive. This has meant rising electricity costs, and also a poorly considered reliance on polluting fossil-fuel power sources that are not sustainable.
This is why many began to consider the relative declining prices of solar, wind, hydro and natural gas in comparison. (Source: https://www.southafricanmi.com/blog-18feb2017.html). Utility scale wind and solar is already less expensive than fossil fuels in many areas. Think of the massive wind turbines along the N2 highway when you are driving through the Garden Route. The wind farms along our coastline already contribute 645.71 MW to our grid.
Together, SA’s renewable energy projects contribute 3,773 MW, compared to the 43,485MW currently delivered by fossil fuels. So, why aren’t we putting in more effort to renewable power sources?
In truth, South Africa’s investment into sustainable energy already totals five times what we paid for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In 2018, our then Energy Minister Jeff Radebe signed a R56bn contract, which was geared toward adding another 2,300MW of electricity to our national grid over 5 years with 27 independent renewable energy power producers. We can only hope that the implementation of this will be enforced more swiftly, seeing as we are already 3 years into the deal.
The takeaway is that the end of coal is near.
To truly understand what you can actually save by going solar or using alternative methods of renewable energies, you need to understand the relationship between Eskom, Generators and Solar and Battery Back-up power.
A quick scan of the tariff hikes, and the plans for maintenance and repairs for all of our Eskom power stations ensures continued rising costs. This escalating cost of electricity means that the current short-term price of solar energy will soon be comparable. Despite this view, the long-term cost of solar remains more affordable than coal-powered electricity.
Solar isn’t necessarily the only option, but it is the best long-term solution. Many businesses and households have used petrol or diesel powered generators as a stop gap during load shedding schedules. Yet, the price of petrol and diesel have climbed significantly in South Africa over the past couple of years. Over the past decade, our fuel tax has jumped by 132% and our petrol price has more than doubled.
This makes solar a real option. It also leaves us with few other alternatives.
The only way to ensure you do not keep losing money to power, would be by producing your own. Wind power requires an incredibly expensive upfront investment, which means for most small businesses and households, solar is the solution that makes sense.
The Cost of Going Solar
The cost of solar installations have a bad rap, generally because they’re viewed with a very short-term lens. The cost might require an upfront fee for the installation and equipment purchase but, unlike with the electricity you currently use, every watt of electricity you gain from this is a return on your investment (and it usually takes seven years for a full return on your investment).
When you view it through that lens, solar makes a lot of sense. Currently, you are not making any return on an investment—outside of the fact that the electricity you purchase allows you to run your business or your home. Investing in solar is not only a good way to save on your electricity rates in the long-term, it also makes sure that you are protected against unpredictable price increases and rolling black outs. If you are a home or business owner, solar power will help you better predict and manage your expenses, by being able to plan months and years ahead accurately.
The Benefits of Going Solar
- Save money.
Solar power will significantly reduce your electricity bills as soon as it is installed. - Improve property value
A property with energy-saving and energy-producing features is more favourable with buyers. - Be energy independent.
Live in the freedom of producing your own power and designing how you use it.
With solar power, you get to be in control of when your business hours start to end, not Eskom.
The beauty of this sustainable solution is that you have multiple options available to you. There is not just one solar solution available, and this makes it easier for you to find an option that meets all the needs your small business or home might require. A solar system is fully customisable to your lifestyle and requirements. It could be that you want to start out small, wait for a while, put aside more money, and then upgrade your systems later on. You might need five solar panels, or you might need twenty… or you might only want to test one panel.
The flexibility of solar means that you can design your entire power supply using solar, or you could simply design it for backup use.
If you only want backup (in case of load shedding for now), a battery only solution is best for you. It is noise free, it doesn’t use fuel and it will pay for itself fairly quickly. Installing solar panels doesn’t disconnect you from the grid, which means that when you use solar power only as a backup, it allows you to draw from the grid when your solar energy cannot provide all you need or kicks solar energy in when the grid fails (i.e. load shedding).
If you want to generate your own electricity and be able to store it, you could consider a Hybrid solution consisting of solar panels and backup battery systems. But it is entirely up to you.
If you aren’t sure about the personal benefits of solar power or battery backup options, it’s important to investigate just what load shedding solutions, cost options and savings an installation of solar power will offer you.
Install Solar to Avoid Load Shedding
We no longer have to grin and bear load shedding. Give yourself at least one reason to smile. Take a look at our solar solutions for your home or small business. If you’d like to hear more about everything we have discussed, feel free to get in touch with us.
It truly does not need to be so bleak. Hearing constant complaints and threats to leave the country can sometimes make you feel powerless to engage with change. Yet, our nation’s pioneers are moving forward and encouraging a healthy and good change, filled with hope for the future. From new solar company start-ups, producing clean energy and other forward-thinking ideas, through to groups like #ImStaying, we know that we can all work together to bring more solutions to everyone around us.
With solar, you can truly #SmileThroughLoadshedding.