Posts tagged with 'Electricity'

 

#TheAfricanWay Sub-Station in Springs Burns Down Because Ekhurhuleni (East Rand) Municipality Failed To Do Repairs After Break-in Last Year, Despite Being Warned It Could Catch Fire, Leaving Thousands Without Power!

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#BetterUnderApartheid An important electrical sub-station in Springs, which was damaged during a break-in by vandals last year, was left in the dilapidated state, creating a fire risk, has finally burnt down on Sunday, leaving thousands of residents and manufacturing businesses in the industrial area New Era, without electricity. It could take up to 2 weeks to repair the damage.

The businesses in the industrial area like Kellogg’s, will obviously lose millions of Rands in lost manufacturing. The substation was never properly fixed after the last break-in and an electrician warned the Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality in a damage report, which was compiled after the last break-in, that the substation is a ticking time bomb, and was for instance, not properly earthed.

The reason for the Metro’s lack of action to fix the damage seems to be that the insurer never wanted to pay out an insurance claim for the damage caused by the vandals. Dare we ask
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Will SA consider nuclear power plants and will it be safe in the hands of a Third World country ruled by the ANC regime?

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It hangs on everyone’s lips: Will South Africa’s regime consider purchasing another nuclear power generation plant similar to the Koeberg plant.

South Africa is fast moving backwards and has long been no country with First World standards. With the regime’s latest efforts to light the lights, it is clear that there is so much pressure on the Ramaphosa government that they are in no way approaching one task after another and finding solutions.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni was very busy at the Davos summit, but his busy time was only to kill fires over the Eskom scandal and the empty state coffers that lack the ability to borrow money to save SAL .

That raises the question of whether nuclear power plants are the answer to SA’s power supply, but experts believe the Koeberg power station is a prime example of First World equipment, and in fact can’t be safe in the hands of a Third World country.”

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Brace yourself for stage 8 #RollingBlackOuts or 10-hour daily blackout, as municipalities are preparing for the worst

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Eskom was forced to implement stage 6 load shedding in December – its worst ever blackout – sending the country into a panic as not many people were aware of what that stage actually meant for them.

Municipalities too, were caught off-guard, with Johannesburg electricity distributor City Power saying at the time that it had no load-shedding schedule for Stage 6.

The year is 2020, and generation and maintenance challenges continue to mount at the state company which generates 96% of South Africa’s electricity.

As a result, all municipalities have been advised to adjust their load shedding schedule up to stage 8, the Buffalo City Municipality said in a statement on Saturday (11 January).

With each stage representing a curtailment of 5% of the national load, stage 8 will equate to 40% of the load being shed, the municipality said.

Under the previous load shedding schedule, four stages were implemented with between 1,000 MW and 4
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Fire Destroy De Aar’s Courts After Explosion Because De Aar’s Volunteer Fire Service Has 30 Year Old Firetruck With Leaky Hoses

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Is civilization too complicated for Africa? A huge fire destroyed De Aar’s Courts. The volunteer fire squad arrived with the town’s 30 year old fire truck but could not extinguish the fire due to leaking fire hoses.

De Aar was shaken by a huge explosion last night at 21:45. Only about 2 hours later a huge fire was spotted at the local Magistrates Court. The part of the building that was destroyed houses the Roving, High and Regional court. So in effect De Aar don’t have Courts anymore.

The suspicion is that the fire was started by electricity supply to the town that was too high, because of faulty equipment. De Aar do not have a fulltime Fire Department and only uses a voluntary fire service. When they finally arrived with the town’s 30 year old fire truck, their efforts to put out the fire were hampered by fire hoses that were leaking. A spokesperson from the municipality says there is no money to finance a full time fire servi
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#TheAfricanWay – SA Faces Extended #RollingBlackouts Due to Collapsing Infrastructure Yet Eskom Secretly Wants To Pay R1,8 BILLION (R88,000 per employee) in Performance Bonuses!

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#ParasiticParastatal Eskom seems to have a strange idea about what a performance bonus is and why it actually gets paid. It secretly wants to spend R1,8 BILLION on performance bonuses for the current and following 2 years, even as we face phase 4-6 “load shedding” at the moment and it seems like daily rolling blackouts will be with us for quite some time.

According to Rapport Eskom did not disclose this fact to the public and NERSA (National Energy Regulator of South Africa) found out about this all by itself. It is not a new occurrence either as in 2017 Eskom paid out R4, 2 BILLION in bonuses, so they cannot claim ignorance. If that amount is evenly divided amongst Eskom’s 47658 employees, it amounts to R88,000 per employee!

In 2016 bonuses amounted to R2,1 BILLION. Last year Eskom did not want to give bonuses but were forced to give R10,000 each to more than 30,000 employees after they were convinced to go on strike. That amount was on top
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Soweto owes ESKOM R 17 billion, half of the total national debt – Just cut their bloody electricity to this township!

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ESKOM is desperately trying to recoup money owed by municipalities – Soweto, in particular, is making that task all the more difficult.

ESKOM, South Africa’s national electricity provider, had an exceptionally shocking year in 2018. Financial losses reached dismal new depths. Irregularities, both fiscally and operationally, left the state owned enterprise floundering in the doldrums of gross incompetence. Dubious coal shortages, failed maintenance plans, industrial action and the lingering stench of corruption only added to ESKOM’s woes.

ESSKOM looks to recoup its losses:

Inevitably, ESKOM’s problems become the problems of South African citizens. The much-loathed load sheddingschedule made an ominous return. This year, the knock-on effects of ineptitude will be felt the hardest, as the power utility looks to increase the cost of electricity by at least 15%.
The tariff increase is an attempt to rebuff financial failings – to incre
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South Africans should brace for more rolling blackouts as the power grid is unstable and cannot produce enough power to sustain the country

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Eskom warned of wider controlled power cuts on Monday after six additional generating units unexpectedly went offline. The power utility launched stage 4 load shedding, which requires the shedding of 4 000 megawatts from the grid.

The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry is shocked by the sudden dramatic increase in load shedding.

“How is it possible for six units to go down at the same time?” asked Ms Janine Myburgh, President of the Chamber. “It is just too much of a co-incidence and we must ask if this is not another case of sabotage?”

Sabotage was blamed for a previous bout of load shedding, but the form it took was never explained to the public, except for workers who prevented coal deliveries from taking place.

“Stage Four load shedding is very serious indeed and it will affect commerce and industry. This will also affect the jobs of other workers, especially in heavy industry and it is time that workers whose jobs are at
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Sorry SA, but we need more money, Eskom pleads – Eskom is asking for a 15% tariff increase over the next three years – but in the same breath employs more workers with hefty salaries

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Eskom CEO Phakamani Hadebe made a desperate plea for higher Eskom tariffs over the next three years on Monday, as well as for more money from the government, while apologising to SA for the mess the utility is in.

Hadebe was speaking in Cape Town at public hearings held by the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) to interrogate Eskom’s application for a 15% tariff increase beginning in 2019-2020.

The application needs to meet Nersa’s approval before it can be applied to customers.

Eskom is in a dire financial situation, with a R419bn debt it is unable to service from the revenue it earns. It costs more for it to generate electricity than it recoups from tariffs due to a high cost base, which Nersa believes should not be made the burden of the South African public.

“I am the first to acknowledge that Eskom has contributed to its own problems. Eskom is compelled to apologise to SA for having brought these challenges. They could hav
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Criminals target Johannesburg clinics, facilities without electricity after cable theft – Services at the clinic have been temporarily suspended

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The Westbury clinic in Johannesburg was left without electricity after it was tampered with the facility’s main power cable said the health and social development department on Wednesday.

The clinic’s operating manager said in a statement he saw an unknown man running from the building on Tuesday afternoon after a loud blow noise was heard. He also noted smoke from the same direction as the bang.

“The fire brigade was called for precaution and the patients were evacuated. It was a relief to know that there was no fire and the smoke was of wires that burned when the cables were cut, “the department added.

Due to damage to the main power cable, the generator, which serves as backup, could not be switched on.

Services at the clinic have been temporarily suspended and all vaccines have been sent to a nearby clinic for storage.

City Power is working to restore power to the clinic.

Protea South Clinic in So
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Shocking news, Eskom’s big coal whopper and they would like to point the finger to you the consumer for using too much electricity

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There is no shortage of coal, as Eskom claims. Instead, the coal is piling up at the mines, uncollected by the utility, Anna Marth Ott, CEO of Middelburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said yesterday.

Middelburg is positioned between three large Eskom power stations, and there are 170 coal mines within a 200 km radius of the town.

Speaking to The Witness on Tuesday, she said that Eskom had ceased taking delivery of the coal for reasons unknown to her, for the past month, and that its “wording” to the public about the coal shortage was incorrect.

“How can Eskom tell us there is no coal?” she asked.

Spokespeople for Eskom did not respond to questions from The Witness about the coal supplies by the time of going to print.

Ott is one of many business chamber leaders, including Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business CEO Melanie Veness, who have met in Johannesburg this week to strategise on how they will oppose, in a united voi
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