Does Eskom think the public are stupid?
Energy expert and mining consultant Ted Blom is never one to shirk from controversy and hasnt been doing so recently. While South Africans shudder at the thought of load shedding, Blom reckons that Eskom isnt telling us the entire truth. He spoke to BizNews founder Alec Hogg about the reality of load shedding in SA. Blom tweeted earlier in the week that there was a shortfall of 5,136 megawatts. Blom says this would require Level 6 load shedding to handle this.  Jarryd Neves  Ted Blom on load shedding:  Lets go back a little bit. Because I had operating models of Eskom from 30 years ago, Ive updated them a little bit  in terms of costing and reliability  and Ive taken it upon myself to warn the public of South Africa whenever load shedding is imminent. Ive been doing so for more than 10 years and with a lot of luck, Ive been nearly spot-on every time. Last Sunday, I warned people that load shedding [will be] imminent in the week ahead. On Tuesday I went out and I said, well, Id be surprised if its not worse than level 4 load shedding. Lo and behold, Eskom kept it at level two. I was totally perplexed by this because, as I said, Ive yet to be proven wrong. So, I did a quick poll on Thursday night at 10:00 PM. I asked people from around the country to share their experiences with me. My daughter, who lives in Sandton, had six hours of load shedding  which certainly doesnt fit into any of the Eskom schedules. By seven oclock on Friday morning, I had my results and that was throughout the country. There were numerous people  over 50. I dont claim to be a balanced poll, but I didnt want a balanced poll, I just wanted confirmation. All these people not only gave me their load shedding experiences (which were horrific), but those that I doubted, I asked them to send me their schedules. The schedules didnt correlate with the experiences. I then went out and said, well, somebodys lying to us. I got hold of the operating stats. Notwithstanding that they only declared level two  which is a lie because theres over 2,000 megawatts  and if you know the regulations level 2 load shedding is up to 2,000 megawatts. Theyve been consistently underreporting that for more than a year. I found out that the system shortfall was 5,136 megawatts on Wednesday evening. Ive had that the fight with Eskom previously  Eskom then told everybody that they dont count voluntary load shedding. My argument is [that] its still a cost to the country. Its no use having voluntary load shedding behind the scenes with certain heavy industries, and then people wonder why theyre shedding jobs and disinvesting. Its because they cant face the cost of load shedding. On that basis  and the polls that I had  I called them up. I maintain my facts. On changes in the governments attitude to power generation:  On the basis of the dire failing of government and the ANC in particular  because they hold the levers of government  to satisfy the energy needs of this country. Im on record of saying open up the grid, because otherwise youre going to lose our heavy industry. The only company that purportedly has made some progress on getting a deviation from the caps set  and there are really artificial caps which are now under the control of Minister Mantashe  is Goldfields. And Goldfields, as you will recall, also gave a lot of shares and benefits to certain senior ANC politicians. I dont know if they had to do the same thing again to get their allocation, but its totally preposterous that we cant get access to energy. Then they still expect new companies to come and invest. I get enquiries regularly from overseas companies. My message to them is, dont be mad, youre nuts to think youre going to invest and have access to power. Its not possible. As we go forward, even under the new Eskom management, its getting less possible every year. On solar energy in South Africa:  Its going to harm Eskom, but not not entirely. I think people only addressing half of the cake. Im sitting in Joburg, where its pretty overcast and theres no wind blowing. I dont know how youre going to get renewable energy into the grid thats dispatchable. Those who tout the option of batteries, I can boldly say that Ive just done the research for my paper that Im going to deliver next Monday to see where the storage industry is. Im assured that there is not one utility sized battery available, anywhere in the world. The stuff that Eskom wants to do is experimental stuff. Solar might be cheap, but if its not available it doesnt help the case at all. Thats part of the renewable lie thats been touted around South Africa. It might be a solution for those touting renewable energy, but its not going to help the end consumer because you can be penalised through the roof for when youre in need of dire energy. Read more:  (Visited 560 times, 560 visits today)