As I speculated on this forum before.

 

Eskom expands big plan to cut load shedding in residential areas

Eskom has expanded the rollout of its residential load management pilot in Gauteng.

The pilot was launched in Fourways in June this year, but has now been expanded to areas such as Beverley, Lonehill, Craigavon, Magaliessig, Dainfern Valley, Witkopen, and Douglasdale.

The pilot forms part of Eskom’s demand-side management programme, which aims to ease pressure on the national grid and decrease the level of load shedding by managing overall demand.

The programme only works with smart meters, where the power utility has a certain degree of remote control over consumption.

Participants in the pilot are subject to load limiting, where customers can use some appliances such as lights, refrigerators, televisions, and Wi-Fi routers during load shedding Stages 1 to 4, as long as the load remains below 10 Amps.

An hour before the start of load shedding, the system prompts customers to reduce their consumption from 60/80 Amps to 10 Amps by sending a message to the customer interface unit (CIU) or cell phone.

Customers are provided with four opportunities to reduce their consumption, and thereafter, if the load has not been reduced, the meter automatically switches off the electricity for 30 minutes.

Eskom expands big plan to cut load shedding in residential areas – BusinessTech

2 hours ago, Garth Arendse said:

As I speculated on this forum before.

 

Eskom expands big plan to cut load shedding in residential areas

Eskom has expanded the rollout of its residential load management pilot in Gauteng.

The pilot was launched in Fourways in June this year, but has now been expanded to areas such as Beverley, Lonehill, Craigavon, Magaliessig, Dainfern Valley, Witkopen, and Douglasdale.

The pilot forms part of Eskom’s demand-side management programme, which aims to ease pressure on the national grid and decrease the level of load shedding by managing overall demand.

The programme only works with smart meters, where the power utility has a certain degree of remote control over consumption.

Participants in the pilot are subject to load limiting, where customers can use some appliances such as lights, refrigerators, televisions, and Wi-Fi routers during load shedding Stages 1 to 4, as long as the load remains below 10 Amps.

An hour before the start of load shedding, the system prompts customers to reduce their consumption from 60/80 Amps to 10 Amps by sending a message to the customer interface unit (CIU) or cell phone.

Customers are provided with four opportunities to reduce their consumption, and thereafter, if the load has not been reduced, the meter automatically switches off the electricity for 30 minutes.

Just a question on the pilot areas. 

Are these direct Eskom customers or do they get power from CoJ? 

12 minutes ago, Scorp007 said:

Just a question on the pilot areas. 

Are these direct Eskom customers or do they get power from CoJ? 

I am in the one area and I am Eskom direct.

On 2023/11/07 at 4:09 PM, Scorp007 said:

Just a question on the pilot areas. 

Are these direct Eskom customers or do they get power from CoJ? 

Direct from Eskom. A work colleague of mine was part of the pilot, and says it is much better than no lights at all. 

If one has a solar system then this is no problem at all🤣

On 2023/11/07 at 1:25 PM, Garth Arendse said:

Participants in the pilot are subject to load limiting, where customers can use some appliances such as lights, refrigerators, televisions, and Wi-Fi routers during load shedding Stages 1 to 4, as long as the load remains below 10 Amps.

This sounds like a whole load of manure... 10A is 2k3W, we hardly ever consume this amount, which begs the question, why do they still roll the blackouts here?

As it is, I'd be happy to see Eksdom close up shop, I can only equate them to the mafia, a total rip off and of course regime sanctioned...

 

On 2023/11/11 at 3:26 PM, Kalahari Meerkat said:

This sounds like a whole load of manure... 10A is 2k3W, we hardly ever consume this amount, which begs the question, why do they still roll the blackouts here?

Even if some folks have got low power consumption, many others would exceed the 2.3kW just by turning on an electric heating appliance like one kettle, nevermind trying to cook dinner with 2-4 stoveplates on high all at once. Even the geyser coming on by thermostat would exceed that without most people even trying.

Still, with 2.3kW one could achieve a lot compared to zero if everyone has lower-powered appliances, just not with everything on all at once. LED lights, tv and fridge, say a baseload of 500W, and then if this load-limiting situation becomes a long-term feature, there could be a larger market for kettles, irons, etc with ratings in the 1000-1500W, range, even heat pumps and electric panel heaters, when replacement time comes around.

Life is closer to bearable for more people even if one can just bring a one-pot meal to boil on a 1500W hot plate and simmer it at 200-300W.

Edited November 18, 20232 yr by GreenFields

Remember the election next year. Give people some power and especially the masses that had to sit in the dark and watch all the good news notes even at the expense of paying the friends to install for those that don't have smart meters. 

The forecast of renewable generating more power than Eskom shortly just shows what PV is saving Eskom and they look much better than if there was no PV systems. 

This means again the private sector does what Eskom could not even plan let alone put into service in the 15yrs since the start of LS. 

Agree with @Kalahari Meerkat

4 hours ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

This sounds like a whole load of manure... 10A is 2k3W, we hardly ever consume this amount, which begs the question, why do they still roll the blackouts here?

I'm guessing. It means no stoves, no geysers, no tumble driers or other big users (microwaves? Hair dryers? ) and no sudden changes in demand. 

But. 2.5 hours with no supply saves more than 2.5 hrs with everybody allowed 10A. So the areas have to get bigger or the sheds longer. 

I'm tempted to say they could achieve the same with ripple switches, but my experience tells me a lot are bypassed or removed. Or were never there. My house has two geysers. These are on different circuits, indeed different DBs. There is only evidence of there ever being one ripple switch, and that was removed when the heat pump was installed. 

At night we get to 2kW using the kettle (and our kettle uses relatively low power). I the day we get up to 3 but usually not for long. 

I think we underestimate how much power can be used. I was talking to work colleagues about the alignment of load shedding with the recent cold snap. It was overcast too. So suddenly solar geysers fall back on the grid, electric blankets come out (really!) air cons switch to heating mode, tumble driers get used more. A small difference per house, but a big difference for a city. I think Eskom are hoping for the reverse. A small constraint for each house also adds up. 

11 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

I'm guessing. It means no stoves, no geysers, no tumble driers or other big users (microwaves? Hair dryers? ) and no sudden changes in demand. 

Also it means nobody beats the system or ignores polite appeals to turn off the geyser. 

Recently we had a string of post restoration surges where I live. Discussion got around to maybe we should all turn geysers off ahead of restoration, not leave ovens on etc. I was surprised at how strong the emotions got. Some folks saying they already did it but what's the point unless everybody does it. Others saying like hell are they turning anything off.

Im also guessing they can manage end of sheds better. Lifting the limits for blocks of meters at a time to avoid in-rush (I envisage people running for the DB at 31 minutes past). 

And it may reduce damage to substations that aren't meant to be turned off and back on on a daily basis. 

Edited November 11, 20232 yr by Bobster.

4 hours ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

This sounds like a whole load of manure... 10A is 2k3W, we hardly ever consume this amount, which begs the question, why do they still roll the blackouts here?

You don't. And I suspect a lot of people with PV systems don't. A side effect of having solar is that one becomes more conscious of one's electricity use. 

My system is limited to 20A on the backed up side. Early on we tripped it a lot. Now we look around the kitchen to see what's already on before making toast, turning on the microwave etc. 

Now we spend most of the day under 10A, but we do go over that at times. 

Edited November 11, 20232 yr by Bobster.

11 hours ago, Bobster. said:

I'm guessing. It means no stoves, no geysers, no tumble driers or other big users (microwaves? Hair dryers? ) and no sudden changes in demand. 

No tumble drier, Kalahari sorts out wet washing, hang the washing outside, for an hour or so and presto...

Stove, just a small unit probably peaking 1k5W, same for Microwave, induction cooker plate, evacuated tube solar hot water cylinder, which reminds me, I need to make an "afdakkie" for the hot water cylinder, the hot water is too hot... we can peak up to (on peak) get to 4kW when I run/start the electric lawnmower, but running, we're talking around 1kW for the Wolf lawmower. We tend to schedule things, want to run the dishwasher, no cooking until its heating cycles are over etc. if we had a larger than 5kW inverter, we probably would be more wasteful/less careful in scheduling.

11 hours ago, Bobster. said:

A side effect of having solar is that one becomes more conscious of one's electricity use.

Spot on, although, even before solar, I was seeing that hey, running an Intel based server 24/7 as part of the household has some significant impact as part of the power consumption, we used to consume around 30+ kWh per day, which isn't huge, but certainly not a small number, nowadays, we're around the 17 to 23kWh mark, depending on cloud cover, we're more frugal, since solar won't necessarily cover us.

 

11 hours ago, Bobster. said:

Now we spend most of the day under 10A, but we do go over that at times. 

Same here, we can and do exceed 10A on the consumption side, but that is always covered by solar... overnight, the consumption floats from an absolute high of 1k1W (Kalahari, remember, fridges & freezers) down to as low as 400-odd W, don't have aircon/heat pump, so a lot of moaning & bitching, when by mid day yesterday, the indoor temperature was at 30°C and walking out the kitchen door into the open air oven outside we had 41°C in the shade and climbing.

On 2023/11/11 at 4:32 PM, GreenFields said:

Even if some folks have got low power consumption, many others would exceed the 2.3kW just by turning on an electric heating appliance like one kettle, nevermind trying to cook dinner with 2-4 stoveplates on high all at once. Even the geyser coming on by thermostat would exceed that without most people even trying.

Still, with 2.3kW one could achieve a lot compared to zero if everyone has has lower-powered appliances, just not with everything on all at once. LED lights, tv and fridge, say a baseload of 500W, and then if this load-limiting situation becomes a long-term feature, there could be a larger market for kettles, irons, etc with ratings in the 1000-1500W, range, even heat pumps and electric panel heaters, when replacement time comes around.

Life is closer to bearable for more people even if one can just bring a one-pot meal to boil on a 1500W hot plate and simmer it at 200-300W.

Or replace your airfryer with a slow cooker :).

Here's an actual example of demand management and a town that is exempted from load shedding. Interesting that a private company plays a role here. 

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/522679-eskom-is-letting-this-town-avoid-load-shedding.html

On 2023/11/07 at 1:25 PM, Garth Arendse said:

The programme only works with smart meters, where the power utility has a certain degree of remote control over consumption.

@PsyCLown Are these the WiFi mesh type smart meters, or do they communicate over the power lines? Did you have to pay for them or did Eskom install for free?

Edited January 25, 20242 yr by TimCam

8 hours ago, TimCam said:

@PsyCLown Are these the WiFi mesh type smart meters, or do they communicate over the power lines? Did you have to pay for them or did Eskom install for free?

Honestly I am not sure, I do not think they would be WiFi based as running a WiFi signal throughout a suburb does not make sense just to be able to get data from a smart meter and then interference needs to be taken into consideration too - such as a simple Microwave running can affect WiFi signal negatively.

They likely communicate over the power lines.

 

It was already installed when I bought the house and I am very sure the previous owner did not have to pay for it, I think it was a standard upgrade to the infrastructure in the area a while back and I assume done at no additional cost for the owner.

Most new smart meters overseas run on a WiFi mesh networks (one meter to multiple meters communicate and pass data through to the end point). Efficient and easy installation. This of course only works in close neighborhoods, and not on farms, etc.

Overview below:-

https://www.wirepas.com/smart-electricity-metering

On a side note, many neighborhoods are resisting the installation of these smart meters because of adverse medical problems caused by the continuous RF exposure.

Others don't want them because every detail of your power usage is catalogued and stored on a database. Easy to see patterns of usage (kettles, aircon, geyser, stove, pool pump, etc), and when you're away this is also known, in real time. 🤔