Load shedding: ‘No practical solutions’ for communities who can’t afford solar

Residents have described the increase of load shedding to stage 6 from stage 2 as “crazy and inconvenient”.

Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said intensified load shedding could be expected for the foreseeable future because planned maintenance in winter had been delayed.

Stage 6 load shedding

Ramokgopa said the lack of maintenance at Eskom’s generating units and unplanned losses in units had contributed to the intensified stage 6 load shedding, announced this week.

“Stage 6 load shedding is currently in effect indefinitely, with an update expected as soon as the situation changes,” he said.

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“It is expected that outages should ease towards the end of the week.”

He said the financial relief provided to Eskom in the form of the National Treasury’s R254-billion debt relief strategy would go towards maintaining its assets and implementing the planned maintenance.

“We accept that in the short-term we face the possibility of intensified power interruptions. We say the possibility because if the planned maintenance is accompanied by increases in unplanned losses, then it means there will be an intensification of load shedding.”

A concerned mother Julie Shadwell said stage 6 load shedding was an inconvenience.

“It happens at the most inconvenient times, such as dinner or when we have to do homework with my daughter,” she said.

Shadwell said she was currently experiencing up to eight hours of load shedding a day.

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“During stage 2, we only had about two hours of load shedding a day,” she said.

Steve Dhlamini said load shedding at stage 6 was crazy. He lives in a block of flats in Killarney, where they experienced up to 11 hours of load shedding during stage 6.

“We are more than 100 people living here, from elderly people to young couples with babies depending on power,” he said.

Dhlamini said they had a small generator at the flats to run the lift to help the elderly get to their flats.

Electricity crisis warning

Energy expert Clyde Mallinson said he had warned everyone about an electricity crisis of seismic proportions for years.

“The problem with the electricity situation, it was a creeping disaster, and no-one was dealing with it, like with Covid. We just haven’t had that sense of urgency,” he said.

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Mallinson said when Eskom talked about the country’s load, they were referring to the load they had to supply.

“That’s below the interest within. The private sector has reduced the low Eskom has met, but it hasn’t done that effectively in the winter months. In the winter months, the solar output is muted compared to the summer output,” he said.

Mallison said Eskom simply didn’t have enough energy in its system and could not top up its emergency reserves or pump up the pump storage used at peak times.

“We are also having load shedding at night to try and keep up with the peak in the day – it’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he explained.

Independent environmental consultant Christy Bragg said there were no practical solutions for communities who couldn’t afford solar. Bragg said the government should prioritise the just transition to a green energy future that encompassed the energy needs of the poor.

ALSO READ: Eskom implements stage 6 load shedding until further notice

“I hear that many middle-income houses have set up solar solutions for themselves, but I don’t hear a lot about practical solutions for the communities that cannot afford solar.

“I hear a lot of talk about climate action, but we need to hear the stories from the people, to understand what the solutions are going to look like,” she said.

Bragg said SA needed to start thinking about system change, co-creating energy access systems and thinking of regenerative processes, not extractive modes.