Advantage 

• Wave energy is renewable, you will never run out
• It is environment friendly
• There is a variety of ways to Harness (Lots of ways to gather it)
• No harm to the land
• Less dependency companies for fossil
• Wave energy is very reliable
• A huge amount of energy can be produced in the waves.

Disadvantage 

• Only available to certain locations
• Dependent on wavelength
• Can be nosing to those who live close by
• Cost of production might be enormous

Research has shown that Oceans cover three quarters of the earth’s surface which constitute a natural energy resource in the form of waves. Also in the UK it has been evaluated that the recoverable wave energy resources exceeded the electricity demand. If there is a less that 0.1% of the renewable energy within the oceans that could be translated into electricity it would be very content in the future.

The two basic elements of technology is a collector to capture the wave energy and a turbo generator to convert the wave power into electricity. in the UK wave energy collectors are used in a form of partially submerged shell which seawater is free to enter and leave. When the water enters or leaves, the level of water in the chamber rises or falls.

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•  Install draughts to fill possible gaps in your doors, windows and floor so that the warm air can stay in the room.
• Try to not leave appliance on stand-by such as TVs, Mobile phone charger, and all other electrical devices.
• Switch your light bulbs to energy-saving LED bulbs
• Install ceiling insulation in your home
• You can use Gas rather than Electricity (Gas is much cheaper as prices vary from time to time)
•  Regulate you geyser, switch it off during the day when no-one is at home
• Let the sun in when it is sunny
• Rather use Hot water bottle than a heater
•  Get battery operated lights
• Make use of a generator

Ensure you have all necessary equipment for winter to keep you and your family safe and warm, without going over your electricity budget bill.

The post keep the warm during winter appeared first on Powertime.

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.

• Between our energy use and the environment, there is a direct connection, although it may not be that apparent.
• By consuming less power, the amount of toxic fumes released by power plants is reduced, the earth’s natural resources are conserved and ecosystems protected from destruction.
• You will be contributing to a healthier and happier world by taking steps to reduce your energy consumption.

Climate change prevention and protecting the air:

• Decreasing power plant emissions is maybe the most notable way energy reducing helps the environment.
• Most power plants burn coal, crude oil or other fossil fuels for generating electricity. This is a relatively inexpensive way of creating energy, but our planet pays the price. Carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and Nitrogen oxides are just a few of the by-products that come from the traditional methods of power generation.
• Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which accounts for the majority of all airborne pollution. When released into the air, the sun’s warmth is absorbed and the heat is kept in our atmosphere.
• The effects of greenhouse gas emissions include:

1. Rising temperatures, heat waves and drought
2. Smog and acid rain
3. Abnormal weather patterns
4. Higher sea levels
5. Increased intensively of natural disasters

• The amounts of electricity power plants have to make are reduced by cutting back on energy consumption. This will eventually reduce the amount of fossil fuels that are burned each day.

Conservation of limited natural resources: 

Cutting back on energy use also helps conserve limited natural resources. Lesser demand for harvesting fossil fuels are created by a lesser demand for energy. As fossil fuels become increasingly scarce, they will become extremely expensive.

Save ecosystems and animals: 

Animals and ecosystems can also be harmed by excessive energy use. Habitats on land and in the ocean are destroyed by mining, logging and material extraction associated with the provision of fossil fuels. One of the main reasons that biodiversity is disappearing at 1,000 times the normal extinction rate is human-induced air pollution. Oil spills, which often occur during the transport of fossil fuels, wreak havoc on underwater species and throw of the chemical balance of our oceans, making it dangerous for humans to swim.

Consume less, conserve more: 

Reducing electricity use in your home- or going off the power grid with solar energy-can benefit the environment, conserve resources and save lives. Although your own energy saving adjustments may seem inconsequential, small steps become great leaps when multiplied by 7 billion.

The post How Energy Savings Helps The Environment! appeared first on Powertime.

So if you’re not already aware of this new energy plan, let’s unpack it a little bit. The policy includes some surprising interventions. Some of these notable interventions include the following:

Coal Dependence

Currently, in terms of the total energy generation in South Africa, coal accounts for 77% of that across all it’s coal plants. According to the IRP, the projection is that by the year 2030, this percentage would have been reduced to somewhere in the region of 60% of all energy production in the country. So still heavily dependent on coal fired plants which environmentalist are especially not pleased about.

Renewable Energy?

Despite coal still playing a significant role in energy generation, there is space for a shift towards renewables. According to the IRP, government expects to hike the contribution made to the grid by wind generated energy infrastructures. In the initial draft version of the IRP, released last year, wind generated energy was only supposed to deliver 13% of SA’s electricity by 2030– this has now been increased to more than 18%.

By 2030, solar will supply 7% of electricity. Hydro plants will contribute 8%, nuclear 4.5% and the rest from gas and diesel.

New Coal Plants

The newly released IRP indicates that government notes a business case for the construction of modular and smaller power plants producing between 300mw and 600mw. Particularly in the face of some of the current fleet of power plants being decommissioned in the coming years. Nuclear is very expensive at commissioning and at decommissioning, but when it is operational it is “most reliable and cost effective,” Mantashe told journalists on Friday.

Nuclear reactors planned?

Montalto said that new nuclear capacity does not come onstream before 2030, but discussion of work to start on scoping new nuclear is in the plan for coming on grid beyond 2030.

The IRP argued that smaller nuclear plants will be easier managed investments when compared to large-scale projects. But government acknowledges that these could take more than 10 years to construct, and no additional nuclear power is set to come online before 2030.

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This is the case at the time of writing but there still remains the strong possibility that the stage level will be upgraded to stage two, and this could even be a possibility today and definitely going into the weekend. This despite Eskom CEO, Jabu Mabuza saying that load-shedding should cease by this weekend. The current load-shedding implementation has been blamed on boiler leaks at 6 different power generating units, although some of these units are now online. Mabuza went further on to stress the fact that some the current power generation fleet has an average age of 36 years.

Another factor that contributed to the rolling black out, was the failure of the conveyor belt feeding coal from Exxaro’s Grootegeluk mine to the Medupi power station in Lephalale, Limpopo. The conveyor belt, which transports an average of 4000 tons of coal to the Medupi plant, per hour, reportedly broke down on Saturday. Mabuza mentioned in the presser, that a huge contingent of expertise has been dispatched to the area and he expects the machinery to be up and running by next week, Wednesday.  Whether load-shedding will stay away this weekend or not, remains to be seen then..

Currently, coal is being transported to the Medupi powerplant by means of bulldozers. Eskom, also has had to make use of open cycle gas turbines to cater for the current electricity shortfall. The issue with this, and it was an issue back in March as well, is that diesel stocks are incredibly expensive and current stocks are running low. This also contributes to the load-shedding situation. Mabuza said that Eskom is using much less diesel that it has in the past. In the past financial year, Eskom burnt diesel worth R6bn to keep the lights on in South Africa – in  the year to date, it only used R500m.

Please ensure that you check your schedule to see how you are affected and remember to protect your appliances from power surge by switching them off at the wall sockets before load-shedding commences.

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The South African government has set this day aside for all South Africans to celebrate our rich heritage. Across all races, languages, region and religion, there is one common heritage we all love and share. It goes by various names, Chesa Nyama, Braai and Ukosa to name a few and although the approach differs there’s one constant; when we have something to celebrate, we all unite together behind a fire and prepare amazing feasts.

And that, in a nutshell is what Heritage day or National Braai day is all about. Below we share some thoughts of how this could save you some units on your electricity bill

Cook outdoors

But more than this, try and cook everything on the fire. You never know what you could learn when you’re doing this, and you would also be preparing your self for an instance where you would be forced to. Things you could cook over the fire besides meat include boiling potatoes and baking breads, even pizza etc.

Keep your food warm

There shouldn’t be a need to use the microwave to warm food. There’s cost effective ways this could be done. Build a separate station in close to proximity to dying coal embers that would keep your food warm. Make sure to put it in a fireproof container though. 

Keep yourself warm

You can use fires and coal embers in a control way to keep warm, if you decide to braai later this evening. Whether indoors (fireplace) or outdoors make sure you stock up on plenty of wood this heritage day.

With that said, we wish you a most enjoyable Heritage day with your friends and family and hope that you enjoy the memories and special moments that will be shared and long remembered!

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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.

Experts in the field have weighed in with comments on what the focus should be, and has narrowed this down to 7 things the new CEO would need to have a focus on when navigating through this tempestuous period

1. They must look forward, not backward – Eskom has been tarnished, it’s reputation completely destroyed and the new CEO should wipe the slate clean, start a fresh, and look forward.
2. They must understand the global energy sector as well as the local one – Understand and recognize what is sustainable, look at global trends and stay on par with what’s happening.
3. They must inspire – Through their leadership, going forward, they need to inspire confidence.
4. They must be politically savvy – It would be unrealistic to expect the position to be depoliticised, this goes with out saying, judging by how highly politicised this position has been previously.
5. They must have financial expertise – One of Eskom’s biggest difficulties are the enormous debt they are in, it’s been widely reported and it’s a tough area the new CEO would need to navigate the company through.
6. The capacity to make tough or unpopular decisions – A key issue for Eskom is overstaffing. President Cyril Ramaphosa had effectively tied the CEO’s hands by making it clear there would be no job cuts. A 2016 World Bank policy research working paper found that Eskom had the largest workforce out of the electricity sectors in all 39 countries studied, and by its calculation, Eskom was overstaffed by over 65%.

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So how exactly are these sectors affected by climate change?

Increased drought, storms and flooding has caused massive revenue loss. The Australian Agriculture earlier this year released a statement where it’s mentioned that they’ve lost around $72 mil, largely due to the effects of drought and floods. South African poultry producer RCL Foods. warned it could see profits hit by irrigation restrictions linked to droughts.

What is the effect of climate change in a South African context?

In a governmental report released earlier this year, bold and very disturbing predictions were made for the turn of the century. According to the report, temperature increases of 6 degrees Celsius by the turn of the century. We have already seen an increase in extreme weather conditions over the past few years with the intensity of rainfall in some parts and prolonged dry spells in other parts.

What should be done about this?

It should be advised that we should not panic about the situation. Despite the situation being quite bad, there is yet an opportunity to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of climate change. The government has come up with the NCASS framework which is a nine-step programme that will be implemented to reduce the damage of climate change.

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