MyPE

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

Time to invest in alternative sustainable power

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Dear Ratepayers, Business and Civil Society,

We have been warning consumers for a number of years to become self sustainable by installing water tanks and starting to invest in an alternate sustainable power supply. Normally we take this light hearted until a crises strikes and the cost becomes far more than it would have been if we had made gradual provision to become self sustainable. Load shedding is here to stay for a number of years and we now have to look out for our own future if we don’t want to end up without power and in the dark for extended periods of time. This is what happened over last weekend.

We have been investing time to kick start the process for our city to become self sustainable and we now call on all retired water, electrical, mechanical and electronic engineers to become part of our solution and assist all households in the NMB Metro to become self sustainable and no longer rely on and be part of the grid. We need to let the Metro and Eskom know that we will no longer be at their mercy. In addition, we request all suppliers of water tanks, pumps and fitments to come forward and assist with this process of installing water tanks for households so that we all can enjoy water reserves and never have to face water restrictions and penalties like we have done previously.

We have to learn from the past and become in control of our own future and let the Metro, Eskom and Department of Waterworks know that we are no longer prepared to face the highly inflated water and electricity tariffs and increases. The Metro must realise that the income received from these services will reduce significantly in the future.

Eskom has claimed that the reason for the load shedding over the weekend was due to maintenance from their part but see THIS ARTICLE for how that statement could be questioned. Shocking !!!!

Regards

Kobus Gerber
NMB Ratepayers Association

Editor: The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro is one of the ONLY metro’s in South Africa that will allow you to install a Grid Tie solar system and feedback generated electricity into the grid. Each watt of power that you generate is credited to your electricity account at present prices. Effectively you could install a solar power system and never pay for electricity again. The estimated payback is around 6 years.

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Port Elizabethan

This author is a 'catch-all' for occasional articles and letters written to MyPE. The Author of each article can be found in the signature at the bottom of each individual article.