These value climbs are as of now sifting through to end-clients in various municipalities, as seen with ongoing value change notices from areas like the City of Joburg. The bank’s information shows that power spend is one of the biggest spend categories for section to working class clients, where the normal power spend by a client who holds its Entry Market bank account (Easy Account) increased by 9% (on average) between 2019 and 2020.

The normal month to month power spend by a centre market (Gold Account) client expanded by 15% while a mass-prosperous (Premier Account) client through 14% more on power a similar period. It added that clients routinely go to eBucks to enhance their power buys, utilizing R4.5 million worth of eBucks for power buys over a similar period.

“The reality is that all customers will need to factor a 15% increase on what they have been spending on electricity on a monthly basis, on account of a family spends generally R500 each month on power, that family needs to factor in any event an extra R75 to what they have been paying.

Fuel Price Increase

Drivers will likewise have to battle with higher fuel costs in April, with the cost of petrol now somewhere in the range of R1 and 95cents a litre more costly. The cost of 95 (ULP and LRP) went up R1 on Wednesday 7 April 2021, while the cost of 93 (ULP and LRP) climbed 95 cent a litre. In the interim, diesel (o,05% sulphur) increased by 65.20 cents a litre, while the cost of diesel (0,005% Sulphur) went up by 63.20 cents a litre.

Te cost of illuminating paraffin went up by 34.80 cents.The cost of illuminating paraffin (SMNRP) increased by 35 cents, while the greatest retail cost for LPGAS increased by 48 cents for each kilogram. With effect from 07 April 2021, the fuel levy in the price structure of petrol and diesel will therefore amount to 393 and 379 cents a litre respectively.

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Eskom which has debt of about 454 billion rand is entangle in corruption allegations, many of them related to contracts for the maintenance and construction of power plants. Numerous allegations have been aired at a state commission of inquiry. The first contract to build an ash-handling plant and dam at the site was initially awarded to Rula bulk Materials handling in 2016. But that raised the conflict of interest issue.

Danie Odendaal, an Eskom general manager, was found in an internal probe to have signed off on a technical review used in the tender won by Rula, where his brother Roelf is a shareholder and managing director, a person familiar with the findings said. Danie Odendaal had declared a conflict and should not have participated in the decision.

Danie Odendaal remains suspended and will be going through a disciplinary process says Eskom and the details are matters between employer and employee.

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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.

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Everytime these unplanned breakdown’s occur, Eskom needs to utilize emergency resources of diesel and pumped water storage schemes at a higher rate. This is implemented when unplanned breakdowns rise above 9500MW. This increases the risk over rotational power-cuts to lessen the burden on the grid. In the press release, it was mentioned that they have sufficient diesel to run it;s open cycle gas turbines and water for its pumped storage schemes to supplement the shortage of capacity.

In the statement, they had the following to say :

“The probability of load shedding remains, but will only be implemented if absolutely necessary”

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So keep your eyes out on any news when it comes to load-shedding, in the next few weeks. But we will definitely be keeping an our out on this for and keep you updated.

The post Capacity In Danger Zone – Says Eskom appeared first on Powertime.

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.

The post Stage 1 load-shedding current , Stage 2 possibility 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.

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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