[imagesource: Flickr / Axel Bührmann]

This report comes at you from the dark as I’m in the midst of my second bout of load shedding for the day.

Just the seven and a half hours today. Casual. Welcome to stage six – get comfy, we could be here a while.

The particularly worrying thing about this latest bout of load shedding is that stage six may just be an appetiser for what’s to come, with Eskom desperately scrambling yesterday to avoid stage seven and worse.

Go on, pop that app open and have a look at stage seven. Its Zimbabwe-esque.

Speaking yesterday, Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis warned that things could get worse in the coming days and weeks, reports BusinessTech:

“While every effort and every preparation that can be made will be made to protect essential services in the event of an escalation beyond stage 6, make no mistake – if this were to happen, it would be a time of profound and unprecedented social and economic crisis for South Africa,” Hill-Lewis said.

Lovely. Thanks for the soothing words.

Those of us in Cape Town actually have it good, given that we are only at stage four, shifting to stage five from 10PM.

Hill-Lewis stressed that the city is moving forward with plans to curb load shedding:

“We have enabled businesses who produce excess energy to sell all of it back to the City. We have announced the construction of our own solar plant in Atlantis, and we have commenced our wheeling pilot project with several large commercial participants,” he said…

“As it is, there can be no prospect of national development – and progress out of poverty – so long as this crisis of rolling blackouts persists. Every time this happens, our resolve is only strengthened further that Cape Town will show South Africa how the future can be different.”

Stand down, CapeXit, we aren’t going to become our own country. You have lost touch with reality and need to grow up.

The City of Cape Town has put measures in place to mitigate load shedding, such as UPS systems at intersections, but prolonged periods without power will drain those batteries and lead to outages.

I’m trying to start a revolution where two people go at a time when the lights are out at a four-way stop. Join me, it makes sense.

Eskom’s social media team has been taking a battering after posting messages like this:

Make sure your refrigerator and freezer doors have tight seals, are positioned in a cool place, and are not blocked with frost – all of this will help them to function more efficiently. #BeEnergyEfficient #TogetherWeCanMakeADifference pic.twitter.com/MFxaxhZiRi

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) December 7, 2022

I don’t know who runs that account but my advice would be that less is more. We don’t care about frost because we don’t have power.

The last update from Eskom indicated that stage six will continue today with a shift to stage five planned later. Going forward, the forecast isn’t likely to massively improve given that Eskom can’t afford to buy more diesel for emergency power generation, the last of which was used on Wednesday.

Let’s hear from energy expert Ted Blom via IOL:

“Stage 8 is very possible, given (the) Koeberg (situation) will lead to Stage 7 automatically unless a miracle happens. There is no diesel cushion to break the free fall. Only God can save us,” he said.

Thanks, Ted.

I once made a joke about his hairstyle and he phoned our office and had a rant. Good times.

On we soldier, whatever the stage.

[sources:bustech&iol]