Hot Water

No-cost

• Use less hot water – Shower instead of bathing, Do not let the hot water run unnecessarily, use cold water to wash your hands instead.
• Turn your geyser down to 60°C. Turning your geyser down from 70˚C to 60˚C will see a 5% reduction in your hot water electricity bill. In some cases, 55°C is a good option (but not below that for health risk reasons)
• Switch off your geyser when you go away for a few days or more and during peak hours.

Low-cost

• Insulate your water pipes and wrap your geyser in a geyser blanket.
• Install a geyser timer.
• Switch to a low-flow, energy and water efficient aerated showerhead
• Fix leaking hot water taps.

Lighting

No-cost

• Turn off the lights if you leave a room for more than five minutes.
• Maximise sunlight. Open the curtains in the morning rather than turning on lights.

low-cost

• Replace traditional incandescent light bulbs with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
• Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) remain a somewhat more affordable way to save,
• Use solar powered lights in your garden

Appliances

No-Cost

• Switch off all unused appliances at the wall.
• Only use your washing machine once a full load of dirty laundry has accumulated
• Use cold-water or lower heat settings as often as possible.
• Skip the pre-wash cycle for clothes that aren’t particularly dirty
• Never overload your automatic washing machine
• When using a kettle, boil only as much water as you need

Low-Cost

• Invest in a front-loading washing machine instead of a top loader. It uses less water and costs less to operate
• Have the seals in your fridge replaced to keep the cold air in
• Choose a dishwasher model with a no-heat air-drying feature to save even more electricity, if you can’t use a cloth to dry the dishes or let them drip-dry instead.

The post Save on Electricity This Month appeared first on Powertime.

Solidarity’s legal process started after the congress of South African Trade Unions suggested a plan to create a “special purpose finance vehicle” which involved, what is called a social compact between government, the PIC, the development Bank of southern African and the industrial Development Corporation to bring Eskom’s debt down.

This proposal, which included 26 other points to assist the struggling power utility, was a basis for talks between government, business and unions. Solidarity voices its concerns with the trustees of the Government Employees Pension Funds (GEPF) and  the Public Investment Corporation (PIC). The PIC invests on behalf of the GEPF and some other funds. It manages over R2 Trillion in assets. GEPF said it had not been consulted about the plan and the PIC has not yet commented.

Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann, stated that “It is not in the interest of the workers to fund bankrupt entities” and he also added that Union;s plan may include obtaining a court interdict.

He later stated Solidarity’s main goal is not going to court but to find a solution to “this bad idea”. He continues by saying that “Using pensioners’ money to bail out Eskom will be a major mistake. Workers should not accept the controversial to fund Eskom from the GEPF.

Background of Solidarity

The solidarity of today dates back to 22 June 1902 therefore the solidarity has more than 110 years’ experience in South Africa’s labour market. In 1913 the trade union was named Mineworkers’ Union, in 2001 the MWU changed to MWU-Solidarity and since 2002 the trade union has been known as Solidarity.

The main function is Solidarity is to protect its members in the work place and Solidarity does this though its labour services department who protects thousands of collection and individual members in many different industries across the country. For more information on Solidarity please click here

The post Bailout Eskom’s plan was rejected by Solidarity. appeared first on Powertime.

This comes after heavy pressure from National Treasury, who imposed municipal debt recovery as a mandatory condition to it’s R59bn life-line, thus the disconnection warnings. This “bail-out”, was signed off by President Cyril Ramaphosa to assist Eskom repay it’s interest. The group debt burden amounts to some R450bn

The municipalities recently threatened with disconnection by Eskom, are Bloemfontein, Mafuba and Mantsopa. This comes after repeated failure to adhere to or honor payment agreements. These were agreed to by the municipalities and Eskom itself. So, what exactly are Eskom threatening to do if these municipalities do not pay up?

Eskom said that they would implement the following disconnection actions; Disconnecting the electricity supply to these municipalities between the times 06:00 and 20:00 during weekdays. As well as disconnections on the weekends following the 3rd December. However, they would be allowing power to be supplied over-night. An amount of 8 hours would be allowed for this to take place.

In other news, disconnections would also be facing the city of Soweto and some parts of the greater Gauteng area. This comes after investigations into meter tampering, as well as non-payment of electricity bills. Eskom says that out of the 180 000 electricity meters in Soweto, 120 000 were found to be tampered with. While in other regions of Gauteng, 490 000 out of the 760 000 energy meters, were found to have been tampered with.

The post Eskom’s Municipal Disconnection Operation appeared first on Powertime.

Currently employed as the CEO at NAMPAK, the largest packaging company Africa. He has been employed in this role for the past 5 years. He has a LLB and MBA, from the university of South  Africa and Pretoria respectively.

He has spent more than 20 years with SASOL in senior management roles and has worked in their energy and chemicals industries. This included overseeing work  in the US, Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Germany and China.

The 50 year old has had an amazing career inside the boardroom for quite a number of years. However, the task he faces in his new role requires harder work than he’s arguably ever had to deal with before.

So what was the reaction like to the news? Below we note some of the reactions on the appointment:

Political Parties

ANC – “The responsibility accepted by Mr De Ruyter is one that must be shared by all South Africans whose well-being depends on the well-being of the energy utility.”

DA – “With experience in both the private and public sectors, he has a wealth of experience and we implore upon him to use this experience to set Eskom on the right course to recovery,”

EFF, unsurprisingly dismissed the appointment – as “anti-transformation and racist”, calling it “a clear demonstration of deliberate intent to collapse Eskom to rationalise privatisation”.

TRUE LEADER: Andre de Ruyter. Pic: Geoff Brown. © Unknown.

The post Who is Eskom’s New CEO? appeared first on Powertime.

The energy availability of Eskom’s generation plants is supposed to be as high as 80%, but was last month as low as 69%, an Eskom board member warned recently.

We last saw loadshedding in March this year, after a cyclone in Mozambique affected power imports from the affected country. Eskom also didn’t have enough diesel to power its open cycle gas turbines and this resulted in widespread load-shedding.

“Most of our power stations are in need of maintenance to improve reliability… we do our best to strike the right balance between plant maintenance and keeping the lights on,” said Eskom chairperson and acting CEO Jabu Mabuza.

Headquarters of Eskom, Megawatt park, north of Johannesburg. Eskom generates approximately 95% of the electricity used in South Africa and approximately 45% of the electricity used in Africa.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has bentioned that it has a plan to deal with Eskom’s R450bn debt and the new deal to have Eskom split into three seperate units, name;y generation, transmission and distribution, is set to be discussed in cabinet today, with the view to find a swift resolution into how this deal is to be implemented. The economy has taken a hit recently and severe load-shedding, while not completely avoidable, needs to be manage to reduce it’s effect on the economy.

The post Eskom To Implement Stage 2 load-shedding appeared first on Powertime.

Yet, not only that, it would also have major impacts for the economy, as Newcastle is predominately a mining town and with the current climate of high unemployment, we can definitely not afford any more job losses. To further the point he was making, Judge Piet Bezuidenhout also made mention that cutting the electricity supply to the Newcastle municipality would be counter-productive. It would not aid Eskom or bring it any closer to recouping any of the funds that is owed.

The urgent application was brought to court last week by the municipality and provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in a bid to stop Eskom from disrupting the town’s electricity supply. However, the municipality was not let off the hook easily. They have been ordered by the High Court and it’s Judge, to enter into a payment plan. The payment plan entails the municipality committing to a monthly payment to Eskom, in the sum of R30 mllion as of the end of this month.

Cooperative Governance MEC Sipho Hlomuka, went on to say that although the judgement comes as a great relief to the community, it does not exempt the municipality from paying up it’s debt, saying that Newcastle municipality should show a degree of responsibility by committing to it’s financial obligations. The judgement handed down should ensure that this financial responsibility is imposed, or so we hope.

The post Newcastle Municipality to keep the lights on appeared first on Powertime.

NERSA has announced that it’s Multi-Year Price Determination currently sits at 9.41% for 2019, 8.10% for 2020 and 5.2% for 2021. That is a total of 22.71% over the next three years. These increases are set to to assist the debt-stricken state-owned entity with an additional total of R661.301 billion in recovery funds from customers through out this three year period. Besides these hikes, it seems that the recent price hikes have not been implemented fairly as well.

There has been reports and complaints from some property owners in the City of Cape Town paying increases of up to 30%, way above the average increase for the region. Homeowners with properties worth over R1 million, a surcharge of around R150 has been  imposed – regardless of the amount of energy the make use of. In addition, these residents are subject to a flat rate of 10%. Customers who has a monthly electricity usage of more than 450 units across the past 12 months no longer receive FBE units. Compared to homeowners who consumed more than 600 units, “lifeline” customers who used over 350 units had to pay the same rate of R2.4214 per KWh.

There has been petitions and calls for NERSA to investigate this has seen positive action, as NERSA agreed to look into this issue and are currently investigating the City of Cape Town’s tariff structures. The plea and cry from a petition that gathered around 5000 signatures, is for Premier Alan Winde, to immediately drop the electricity tariffs pending the otcome of the NERSA investigation.

The post NERSA’s Three Year Tariff Price Hike plan appeared first on Powertime.

She does go on to explain why a positive economic outlook would have a negative impact on Eskom and it’s operations. It may seem like a very outlandish or absurd comment, but the explanation makes logical sense if you think it through. The main logical reason for this is that, the better the economy performs, the greater the demand becomes for energy.

This becomes an issue especially because energy availability in South Africa is about 11% below what it should be, currently sitting at 69%, a figure that should be sitting around 80%. This sentiment was echoed by Independent Energy thought leader CEO Mike Rossouw, who said the problems at Eskom can be attributed to completely wrong pricing policy.

Sharing his thoughts on this, he goes on to say that in the past, the current policy could be seen as suitable due to a smaller scale and less investment in new plants. However, presently Eskom can not generate the revenue needed to support investment into the new plants it is building, neither to support the scale of it’s operations.

He lamented that the focus on fixing Eskom was on addressing the symptoms, rather than the root cause of pricing policy.

The post Positive GDP, the catalyst for Eskom Load-shedding? appeared first on Powertime.

“Nersa received numerous complaints regarding the City of Cape Town’s electricity tariffs and is looking into the matter”, Charles Hlebela confirmed. The investigation was widely welcomed, specifically from civic organisation Stop Coct, who had called for a public hearing by Nersa into electricity tariff increases which saw some property owners coughing up way more than the 8.8% increase as stated by the City.

According to Stop Coct spokesperson, Sandra Dickson,  it appears that the City of Cape Town seem to have implemented tariff increases higher than what was initially recommended and approved by Nersa. For 2019/2020 Nersa approved an average increase of 13.07% for municipalities and the City of Cape Town had applied for a 11.30 % increase. However, the City of Cape Town announced in its budget that it would keep the electricity tariff increase at 8.8% for the current financial year.

This, according to Dickson, is technically flawed as some residents have been paying way more than the 8.8% tariff increase advised by the City. Some residents also paid a surcharge of R163.50 if their properties were valued at more than R1 million as well as a flat rate of 10%.

It also stopped giving free electricity units to customers whose monthly usage of electricity per month was more than 450 units over a period of 12 months.

The post City of Cape Town tariff increases Probed appeared first on Powertime.

Some of the reasons that were cited for this loss as posted includes a lower than expected 5.23% tariff increase approved or granted by the energy regulator of South Africa. They also cited a 1.82% decline in sales volumes, above inflation wage settlement with unions as well as escalating municipal debt. Eskom currently generates 95% of South Africa’s electricity.

The announcement of these results has come on the eve of the current and out-going CEO, Phakamani Hadebe who has resigned from his position citing personal health reasons. On Monday, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan announced that Eskom chair Jabu Mabuza would take over as the acting CEO of the power utility. The process of employing the new CEO would be concluded with in three months.

The issues with Eskom are multi layered. They mention that they have thousands more employees than they actually need. They’re also confronted with huge cost over-runs at two new partially completed coal-fired stations.

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