Earlier this morning, a notification popped up on my phone about the return of the dreaded load shedding.

If you’re not getting notifications, download the EskomSePush app, because we’re never really going to be out of the kak on this front.

Eskom has introduced stage two load shedding today, which started at 9AM and runs through to 11PM tonight, as things stand.

We know that South Africa came perilously close to another round of load shedding back in August, but what’s caused things to tip over the edge this time?

Here’s BusinessTech:

In a statement, the power company said that the severe supply constraint was due to high levels of unplanned breakdowns.

“The supply constraint is caused by, among others, five generating units that are unavailable due to boiler tube leaks,” it said.

“In addition, a conveyor belt supplying Medupi power station with coal failed on Saturday (12 October) resulting in low volumes of coal being supplied to the power station thus limiting the generating capacity to approximately half the station output.”

Eskom said that due to the shortage of generating capacity from coal-fired generation, its the pumped storage and Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) generators have also been used extensively since Saturday, which has led to a decline in dam levels and diesel tank levels.

Sure, I hear all that, but what I mostly hear is years and years of chronic mismanagement, with money that should have gone to maintenance being squandered elsewhere to benefit a select few.

The power utility added that it “unreservedly apologise to South Africans”, and that it will “continue to work tirelessly to ensure the security of energy supply”.

Cool, get cracking.

To lend a hand with reducing the strain, Eskom asked South Africans to consider doing the following:

• Set air-conditioners to 23 degrees
• Switch off your geysers
• Use the cold water tap rather than using the geyser every time
• Set your swimming pool pump cycle to run just twice a day for three hours at a time
• Turn off computers and other electronic devices at the end of the day, rather than using standby mode

Also, remember to dance like nobody is watching, and to live, laugh, love.

That won’t help with the power crisis, but if Eskom can take the piss, so can we.

By the way, if you’re wondering how much it would cost for you to get ‘off the grid’, read this.

[sources:businesstech&