MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

The Eksdom Debacle – Leaving Gqeberha Behind

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With Stage 6 loadshedding firmly upon us I have been reading and publishing press releases from municipal media communications for Cape Town and Johannesburg extolling plans being put in place to shield citizens from further hardship.

See: City of Cape Town protects consumers against one stage of loadshedding, again AND City of Cape Town’s innovation leading the way to mitigate effects of loadshedding

And from the Nelson Mandela Bay collection of thieves and bunglers we get Bupkis, Nada, Niks, Fokol, Nothing, Ayiko plans to help mitigate this further round of loadshedding.

The silence from our bloated NMB Administration has been deafening as they continue on the road to darkness and despair.

Once again South Africans are scrambling to buy Solar Panels, Tesla Powerwalls, Loadshedding Kits, Generators, Candles and Parafin Lamps.

On Sunday morning Eskom cut 6 000 megawatts from the national grid following trips at the Kusile and Kriel power stations. That’s almost enough to plunge 4 million homes into darkness.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced steps in July to encourage private power generation to supplement supply from renewable sources. Eskom plans to procure about 1,000 megawatts of power on Monday from private power producers, De Ruyter said at a media briefing on Sunday. That is equivalent to two stages of load shedding.

The City of Cape Town said in a statement; “This is subject to updates, where required, as there are variables at play such as the Steenbras Dam levels necessary for the hydro pump action; and the general volatility of the Eskom situation.”

Cape Town is currently using its Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme to generate spare capacity to enable a measure of protection for the week ahead.

The city said it would continue on its programme to end load shedding over time by focusing on energy diversification. The city’s small-scale embedded generation programmes, of buying excess power from qualifying customers, wheeling and independent power producing programmes all aim to secure the supply of power.

The City of Johannesburg is also seeking to move away from Eskom’s grid by partnering with independent power producers. It said it has identified a gap of around 500 megawatts of power, where it will be able to shift customers away from a reliance on the state power utility.

High levels of load shedding put City Power’s network at risk of faults and unplanned outages. The city aims to launch a framework within the coming weeks, to procure energy from independent producers.

There was a time when Nelson Mandlea Bay was streets ahead of all the other municipalities in terms of it’s welcoming regime for renewable energy – especially rooftop solar power. Unfortunately that has faded away into the distance as more agile and focused municipalities have cottoned on to the fact that better serving their citizens with BASIC SERVICES such as electricity and water actually do form part of their mandate of SERVICE.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.