The level of load shedding in South Africa is reaching critical levels, and analysts claim that the country witnessed level 8 load shedding last week, which consisted of almost 12 hours of blackouts per day.
The firm that generates electricity in South Africa, Eskom, has also announced plans for up to level 16 load shedding, which may result in up to 23 hours of power outages.
Read also: Eskom’s producing capacity decreases, threatening corrective measures
There is optimism and reward
Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, the minister of electricity in South Africa, made the announcement on Friday during a media conference that Eskom would be introducing an incentive plan called the Distribution Demand Management plan. This project will reward South Africans who lower their power use and is part of Eskom’s initiative to reduce the country’s overall demand for electricity.
According to the minister, an individual or company will receive R3 million ($154,000) for every megawatt that is saved by reducing their use for electricity.
One megawatt-hour of electricity is sufficient to run two freezers continuously for a whole year, broil 89,000 slices of bread, or propel an electric vehicle the equivalent of 3,600 miles, which is the distance that separates Cape Town, South Africa and Cairo, Egypt.
According to the minister, the incentive initiative will assist in the re-distribution of extra power throughout the nation during times of high demand.
However, receiving the award is not a given. In order to prevent improper use of the scheme, Eskom will do independent checks and evaluations on all applications.
This is the second scheme that will reward people in South Africa for doing something linked to power. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) approved a new programme in January that will enable residents of Cape Town to sell any excess electrical power generated by their personal generators back into the city’s power grid in exchange for financial compensation.
About Eskom
Eskom is one of the few vertically integrated utilities that still exist, and it is one of the few that is connected to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) through an interconnected system. This helps maintain the stability of the grid. Eskom is dependent on the members of SADC to ensure that sufficient and reliable transmission grids are maintained in their respective nations.
More than ninety percent of the energy that is delivered to a diverse group of consumers in South Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region comes from inputs that are derived from the natural environment.
These inputs include coal, nuclear, fuel, diesel, water, and wind. Eskom is responsible for transforming these inputs. The frequency of the power system must be kept at 50 hertz (Hz) by the System Operator, who will soon be known as the Independent Transmission and System Market Operator, ITSMO, as the Transmission business continues to separate legally. This is necessary in order to achieve a real-time equilibrium between the supply and demand of electricity.
The generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of energy serve as the primary pillars of the company’s operations. These pillars are supported by the development of new power plants and network infrastructure.
Support in the form of finances, human resources, procurement, information technology, telecommunications, strategy, risk and sustainability, legal and compliance, and stakeholder relations are relied on by the Gx, Tx, and Dx Divisions, respectively. Eskom Rotek Industries, a subsidiary of Eskom, undertakes repairs on turbines and transformers in addition to providing speciality construction and transport services. All of these activities are done in support of the electricity industry.
Fraud, corruption, and other forms of economic crime and irregularities are all targets of Eskom’s anti-fraud and anti-corruption efforts, as well as the company’s Whistle Blower Policy and Fraud Prevention Policy, which it has put in place to combat these issues. Eskom takes a position of zero tolerance for these kinds of activities, regardless of whether they are carried out inside or outside of the organisation.
This commitment fosters the development of a culture that encourages the responsible disclosure, by employees and others, of information relating to criminal activity and other types of irregular conduct that may have occurred in the workplace.
In order to achieve this goal, Eskom takes a holistic strategy to preventing, detecting, investigating, and taking any relevant action internally and prosecuting externally, through the legal system, towards acts of fraud, corruption, and other types of economic crime or irregularities. In addition, Eskom takes any suitable action that may be necessary.
It has been built and is now being maintained as a system that can receive information about fraudulent, corrupt, and irregular actions from anyone and take action based on that information. Every piece of information that is sent out is held in the utmost discretion.