By Lance Dickerson, co-founder and MD, Revov
During the Opening of Parliament Address (OPA) recently, Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa spoke glowingly about the radically reduced load shedding. Indeed, at the time of writing there has not been load shedding for more than 100 days. While this is the norm around the world, the fact we’ve gone almost a third of a year without rotating national power cuts is remarkable.
However, tell that to some communities in Johannesburg who face daily load reduction at best, and who, at worst, go without power for days on end, over and over again. One is not hard-pressed to find communities around the country at their wit’s end through incessant and prolonged power cuts. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
While the country’s electricity utility Eskom is managing to meet demand – which is substantially reduced in large part through other-side-of-the-meter solar installations – local infrastructure is so rotten that some areas barely last a day or two before being plunged into darkness again. Cynically, even this reduces demand keeping national load shedding at bay.
This is how the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) defines load reduction: “Emergency Load reduction may take the form of load shedding (time-based interruption of supply to customers on a rotational basis), mandatory load curtailment (self-reduction by customers in response to an instruction given by the system operator), load limiting (a limit placed on the current or power consumed by a customer, typically enabled by smart meter technology), or customer load switching (remote switching of customer circuits to specific appliances, typically enabled by smart meter technology or ripple control technology).
Eskom provides a bit more clarity on the “why” when it states on its website: “Load reduction is a long-established process that Eskom uses in specific areas when there is sufficient electricity available, but a transformer’s integrity is at risk due to overloading, whereas load shedding is used when the national grid is constrained and there is not sufficient capacity to generate electricity to meet demand. It is also a proactive measure that Eskom uses to protect human life, equipment worth millions of rands and people’s livelihoods. Overloading of the transformers is recorded mainly during peak hours around 05:00 and 07:00 in the morning and 17:00 to 19:00 in the evening.”
In other words, load reduction is protective. To this backdrop, the City of Johannesburg recently announced it would be implementing rotational load reduction to prevent its grid from collapse. Acknowledging the obvious is not unpatriotic, it is prudent: The state of the distribution network in Johannesburg is frighteningly close to collapse, with teams of technicians running around full time trying to reconnect communities. While this is evident in many parts of our country, some worse off than Johannesburg, it is important to remember that this is the economic hub of the country.
A glance at City of Johannesburg’s load reduction schedule at the time of writing reveals that 88 suburbs, excluding their various extensions which would increase the number, are affected today in two-hour blocks reminiscent of stage 2 load shedding. There are very clear patterns in the areas and one can colour in a map showing where the infrastructure is on the verge of collapse.
Then, not on that list are suburbs in the west of the City which suffer repeated and extensive power cuts, with reasons varying from cable faults to substation failures. Some leafy suburbs have large power cables running from mini substations, along trees and across street lights (held up by wire), and fed directly into people’s homes.
Let’s be clear, this is not a diatribe. This is an observation of the status quo which we know can be fixed with the right political will and public-private cooperation. The point is that we, as a country, cannot take our foot off the accelerator. We have cautioned for as long as we have been working in energy backup in the country that energy generation was only one half of the problem.
Households and businesses have no choice but to try to guarantee their own power continuity until such time as all the problems mentioned have been addressed. Households cannot let out a huge sigh of relief – they absolutely should still be investing in uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems, be these bespoke or plug-and-play solutions. They should still, wherever possible, be investing in solar installations and demanding they are built with sufficient backup capacity.
Businesses, from small retailers inside retail centres or malls, all the way to large operations in the manufacturing, mining, construction, education and property management industries cannot listen to OPA speeches and feel secure that they’ll have the power they need to run their businesses uninterrupted. Low- and high-voltage battery backup systems are still, in 2024, the only sure way businesses can secure their power supply not only to keep the lights on, but to drive industry and the economy which has suffered immensely as a direct result of the electricity crisis.
However, it is crucial for everyone, from those working at home to those on the boards of large businesses, to understand – not all batteries are built equally. Lithium iron phosphate batteries, especially those built with EV battery cells and referred to as 2nd LiFe, have proven they not only have the right chemistry and safety profile, but are robust enough to handle harsh operating conditions and the charge and discharge rates synonymous with our South African landscape.
