your thoughts on the misnomer 'loadshedding'

Planned vs Unplanned. That doesn't mean Planned Outage doesn't cause a blackout. A Blackout is usually due to a fault.

50 minutes ago, Gabriël said:

your thoughts on the misnomer 'loadshedding'

Load shedding (as we experience it) is an accurate description. It is a deliberate action by the utility to reduce the load on the grid due to not enough generation capacity for the load that the grid needs to supply. This is potentially catastrophic for the utility since it can cause the grid to collapse. 

The fact that they don't start with shedding the users who are in arrears with their electricity payments isn't included in the name...

If we didn't have load shedding we sure would soon have a blackout!

1 hour ago, Richard Mackay said:

The fact that they don't start with shedding the users who are in arrears with their electricity payments isn't included in the name...

I've always wanted to see the stats on how many non-paying customers there really are, percentage wise. The reason I say this is because a similar argument is made for Zimbabwe. "Jaaa Frikkie! Why are we still supplying Zim with power?"

... well, the portion we give to them is like 1% of our total capacity. Sure, we can cut them off completely, but it's not going to make a massive difference.

"Jaaa Kobus, we must also stop supplying all these other leaachin' African countries!"

.... yeah sure, but remember the DRC is a net exporter, Mozambique is a net exporter, even Botswana is a (small) net exporter these days... net-exporter means they put more power into SAPP (Southern African power pool) than they take out. You guys sure you want to make things even worse?

🙂

I would love to see stats for, say, Soweto, cause some of my white brothers tend to act as if nobody in Soweto ever pays a power bill... and I am sure that is just not true.

3 minutes ago, plonkster said:

I've always wanted to see the stats on how many non-paying customers there really are, percentage wise. 

I have heard from more than one source that all Western Cape's municipalities are current with their payments (which is not the case for the other provinces)

1 minute ago, Richard Mackay said:

I have heard from more than one source that all Western Cape's municipalities are current with their payments (which is not the case for the other provinces)

That is true, but it also depends on who is doing the talking. Just a while ago Eskom reported that Cape Town owes it some huge amount, and Cape Town immediately pointed out that their terms are 60 days (similar to their own customers), and they are completely up to date with those terms.

But we know of course, as a matter of public record, that many ANC-run municipalities are in debt to the tune of millions. I'm not dismissing that at all, I just wonder to what extent it would improve the situation if you could target-load-shed those guys. Besides, every time they threaten (like Bloemfontein a while ago), they strike some kind of deal and the mess just continues.

2 hours ago, Richard Mackay said:

Load shedding (as we experience it) is an accurate description

where i am i get a electricity blackouts

not only do i pay for this service directly but also via income and most probably indirect taxation.

eskom might 'shed load', but what we get are blackouts, not?

From what I can establish the word 'blackout' was first used in England during WW2. This was an order where all lights were to be 'blacked out' so German night bombers could not determine their position by recognising lights of buildings etc. 

I think a better term for your blackouts is a 'power outage'

Edited January 27, 20205 yr by Richard Mackay

1 hour ago, Richard Mackay said:

I think a better term for your blackouts is a 'power outage'

indeed richard, you are technically correct - especially in light of the opinion [no pun intended] that blackout could be construed to be non-pc, or worse it could be indicative of a medical condition 🙂

17 hours ago, plonkster said:

I would love to see stats for, say, Soweto, cause some of my white brothers tend to act as if nobody in Soweto ever pays a power bill... and I am sure that is just not true.

Non-payment or ways of reducing payment certainly are a thing, but they're not confined to townships and not everybody in the townships plays these games.

I notice that COJ is having a clamp down on defaulters. Don't pay - lose services (OK... you still get water, but only a trickle). They are focusing on high wealth areas (average rated value > 5 million) where, they say, there is a culture of not paying municipal accounts.

When he was mayor, Herman Mashaba issued an open letter to the professional body for chartered accountants asking why so many of their members, working at corporate headquarters in Sandton, had not noticed that their companies were not paying for services.

Mashaba also caused a stink in Roodepoort. City Power were asked to investigate continued black outs at a secure complex. What they found was an illegal and indadequate connection to the grid (made at construction time) and pre-paid meters in every unit with somebody other than the city getting the money. Further investigations revealed a 2nd complex and a shopping mall operating on the same basis.  All these properties were disconnected. The up market Waterval estate in Midrand was found to have unmetered water connections.

We SHOULD be cross about those who don't pay their fair share, but we err in thinking it's a township thing. I know people who live in Soweto who diligently feed their pre-paid meters.

COJ reportedly are looking at different approaches to load shedding, including using smart meters to cap the load on a property by property basis. You get the guys using the most to cut their usage for the next few hours or you cut them off if they ignore the warning.
 

Edited January 28, 20205 yr by Bobster

I should add that City Power do look for and follow up on suspicious goings on. I know this because they recently came to my property wanting to know why I haven't bought electricity for several months. They were shown the solar system, but still asked to check the meter and main circuit breaker so as to be sure that there was no "creative" wiring.

14 hours ago, Richard Mackay said:

From what I can establish the word 'blackout' was first used in England during WW2. This was an order where all lights were to be 'blacked out' so German night bombers could not determine their position by recognising lights of buildings etc. 

I think a better term for your blackouts is a 'power outage'

Yes.
Blackout is deliberately dimming lights.
Load shedding is a controlled reduction of supply.
Outage is other stuff (cable theft, equipment failure...)

Not that I'm arguing that outages are somehow acceptable or less unacceptable, just that an outage and a load shed are not the same thing.

14 minutes ago, Bobster said:

We SHOULD be cross about those who don't pay their fair share, but we err in thinking it's a township thing. I know people who live in Soweto who diligently feed their pre-paid meters.

We should also a bit kind and considerate and think of the people who genuinely can't afford to pay - I have such a person 2 houses away from me - and not begrudge them a limited free service.

23 minutes ago, Bobster said:

We SHOULD be cross about those who don't pay their fair share, but we err in thinking it's a township thing. I know people who live in Soweto who diligently feed their pre-paid meters.

I agree wholeheartedly. And truth be told, there is a tiny bit of racism involved too, though I think it is more of the latent kind than explicit kind, the way our head lumps things together and do the calculation. Another example came up in the Cape Town drought. Upper-class resident blamed townships for the water use, because in our heads we see the broken pipes and the stolen brass taps and the carwashes published by the media and via social media... but the facts showed something different: It was not the townships using the bulk of the water.

So everytime someone suggests that we ought to cut off this group or that group... I cringe just a little. Yeah, maybe we should, but can we just look at the numbers before we jump to conclusions? 🙂

 

Edited January 28, 20205 yr by plonkster