Eskom bites a helping solar hand

Don’t bother coming up with innovative ways to combat the debilitating cycles of load shedding is the disturbing message issued by the High Court in Johannesburg and Eskom to the Free State town of Frankfort.

Mafube local municipality, through Rural Maintenance Free State – a private company managing the distribution of electricity to the municipality – has been using solar energy from four private solar farms during load shedding on a three-month trial basis from February, after reaching an agreement with the power utility.

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It allowed the municipality to implement “voiding” – the process of using alternative, non-state-sponsored energy to make up for energy deficits during load shedding.

However, Eskom backtracked a month later. That dream has fallen into a dark pit after the high court dismissed the urgent application against Eskom after the municipality failed to support it.

Now, portions of the solar panels will be shut down. What a waste.

In its affidavit, Eskom strongly opposed Mafube municipality using separately sourced energy as “it would encourage customers throughout the country who have additional embedded generation capacity to claim similar relief”.

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So what? The public should be applauded for adopting new ways to counter the power crisis. There seems to be no end in sight to the power vacuum.