Fact Check | Has load shedding stopped because of the elections?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- In a statement released by the Democratic Alliance in late April, the opposition party expressed what many people suspect to be the case: the claim that “Eskom may be manipulating the power supply ecosystem to keep the lights on at all costs until May 29”. South Africa has now had an uninterrupted electricity supply for over a month - which, depressingly, is the longest period without load shedding since 2022. Naturally, people are suspicious about the timing - since the general elections are now less than a month away, and it was previously believed that load shedding as an electoral issue was going to cost the ANC badly. So is the ruling party somehow managing to rig the system to keep load shedding at bay until May 29th - after which things will return to darkness as usual?
I think you guys should consider if they are deferring scheduled maintenance until after the election.
They can run the system into the ground by not doing the scheduled maintenance and it will be fine in the short term, but eventually we'll all pay the price. That's partly why we ended up where we are.
And worst of all it's people that pay that gets the loadshedding more then this that don't .
Eskom used about ¼ the quantity of diesel in April 2024 compared to April last year. At face value it looks like a big improvement, but of course the numbers can be fiddled, eg by buying more in March (they did) etc.
You haven't mentioned the maintenance shutdowns of coal units. There are unscheduled and scheduled shutdowns of each of the units at each of the power stations each year. Unscheduled shutdowns are usually because of breakdowns and cannot be put off. But the scheduled ones (which are very important to the long term reliability of the system) can easily be put off. They account for a huge portion of the total availability of the grid.
You really should look discuss this and get some detailed numbers on this. I think it would be a much bigger factor than the diesel burnt (but I haven't checked the numbers)
Each day that there is NO load shedding, I cringe at the money we are burning.
EIsh …. looks like I am a born Christian whom the ANC converted to cynicism
We've got coal and we had SASOL, yet we are burning other people's diesel is also part of it
Even if Escom burns less diesel, it pays an elevated price for BEE purposes (only a few individuals), which means we pay extra for the luxury.
Thanks for this video. All sorts of shenanigans occur during an election year & it's often difficult to know what's fact or fiction, especially when spouted by politicians.
Clarification: does Eskom burn both gas & diesel, or diesel to run gas equipment? I ask because there are rumours SA is about to experience a gas shortage. Is this because Eskom is burning a lot of gas? I ask because a lot of people have installed gas to use during loadshedding. So, Eskom + increase gas usage + winter = not enough gas for public to access during winter (yikes!).
A few notes
- Joburg is biggest city in SA & was experiencing a protracted heat wave in March 2024, so higher demand hence higher use of diesel?
- it would be handy to know how much electricity is actually reaching customers. Our Joburg neighbourhood seems to be more off than on due to equipment failure, and there seems to be a lot of suburbs struggling with power outages due to failing infradtructure (Joburg). What is the situation in other major cities re power outtages due to equipment failure (hence less demand on the grid)
Note:
SA has made 2 international commitments re sustainable development & the just energy transition
- Agenda 2030 & 17 SDGs
- the New Urban Agenda
We need to remind gov & politicians about these commitments - people & planet before profit
The idea that the anc is finally running something properly is surely laughable? Even if it is for their own electioneering! But something is odd about this and it can't be because the whole country gave up cooking for sandwiches and salads and eats them by candlelight while wearing a onesy
Good video. Very clear and objective. One thing's been omitted though, and that is that planned maintenance has decreased somewhat, which is a concern, due to the long-term impact this is. Plus, none of these changes the fact that a number of aging coal stations need to be decomissioned (agreeing with the point that load shedding isn't over).
After the election whats loadshedding 😮
The whole lot is fake.when we had loadshedding at least there was timing.now we have got loadshedding with a new name as maintenance.and they think we're to stupid to notice it.they trying to whomever is in charge of eskom now look good.but it's not working.
Who's paying for the diesel?
For sure!!!!
Rebecca sounds like she's interviewing for a position at Lootfreely House