Christopher Motabogi

You’ve probably seen the television advert telling the “man dressed as a geyser” to go outside since it’s almost five’ o’clock. Electricity utility, Eskom, says there seems to be a marked response to this and other related media campaigns aimed at requesting customers to reduce electricity consumption. Eskom Free State’s General Manager, Lindi Mthombeni, was referring to programmes such as the Power Bulletin, which are aimed at encouraging electricity saving between the peak hours of 5 and 9pm daily.

However, she says, despite the progress made in reducing the pressure on the electricity grid, much still needs to be done by all, including municipalities, the farming community and ordinary South Africans. “There is no separation in the power system that says this (electricity) is going to the municipality…it just says all the customers contribute to the increase in demand,” Mthombeni told Bloemfontein Courant this week. She says the intention is to inculcate a culture of electricity saving among users and the 5-to-9pm peak-period has been identified as the time when electricity demand is at its highest.

Mthombeni says Eskom would this year, for the first time, also conduct necessary maintenance during winter. The company would have no problem with supplying power during the day, but was more concerned with the demand during peak-hours.  Meanwhile, Eskom’s Pannetjie Rossouw says the company is also preparing to undertake a massive residential market rollout aimed at providing energy saving incentives to electricity users countrywide.

This, he says, involves Eskom incentivising electricity users to conserve energy and allowing them to choose from a “bucket of services” at no cost to them.  “Eskom has a basket of products it can offer you (the client). These include showerheads, a timer which you can put on your geyser to keep the geyser ‘out’ between 5 and 9 in the evenings as well as LED lights and normal energy-efficient lights,” says Rossouw. Rossouw warned however, that the onus was on electricity users to contact Eskom if interested in accessing the bucket of services freely available.
So how can you contribute to saving electricity and keeping the lights on?

Eskom suggests, by:
1. Switching off all geysers and pool pumps during 5-9pm
2. Switching off all non-essential lighting
3. Finding alternatives to electrical heating; and
4. Responding to all power alert messages by switching off all appliances that are not being used.
Eskom aims to install 370 000 compact fluorescent lamps in the Free State alone as part of the province’s contribution to reaching 3 million South Africans through the 5-9pm electricity savings initiative.
In 2008 South Africa experienced widespread load-shedding due to Eskom’s inability to cope with excessive demand.

christopher@centralmediagroup.co.za