Try and run a business on these time schedules as things are about to get even tougher. Our manufacturing business is shut down again and don't hold much hope now as 4 hours is tough to get work done without high wastage being the result when machines stop. Maybe now my business partner will agree to moving the plant to Europe.
The real reason why SA's power supply is deteriorating at such a rapid rate.
A must read article as this is how bad things really are. I just wish they could publish the ministers involved which will shake things up.
I do believe what South Africa is experiencing right now is similar to a death spiral with only one result being total collapse of the infrastructure. I am not a negative person and only likes to deal in reality and I see no other outcome. If you read between the lines I do think it is inevitable as we have reached the tipping point.
I think everyone is aware of the dire electricity problem in the country which has been made worse via rampant corruption which includes sabotage and vandalism as part of the way of stealing government (tax payers) money.
Over and above the normal down time we have seen a new trend with the collapsing of 12 power lines due to theft of the metal structure for scrap metal.
The biggest problem is we are about to go into winter and this Thursday the power utility shed 7000MW which is Stage 8 or the loss of 10-12 hours of power daily. This is the second time we have hit this milestone with the last time being February.
The problem with losing half a days power is obvious but the news is even worse as it creates an underlying problem besides an economical one. Not only is the grid under pressure due to broken equipment that needs repairing making it work at a higher capacity causing more damage making the situation even worse. Repairs can not take place during load shedding and as the hours slowly increase it leads to a meltdown or total system shutdown.
Koeberg the nuclear power plant in the Cape will only be up and running properly in August of this year which is still 4 months away if there are no more delays. The problem is Stage 6 is now here to stay meaning we can expect a minimum of 6-8 hours per day being lost indefinitely which will impact businesses like we have never seen before.
The cost of doing business is rising faster than inflation due to having to provide back up electricity thus forcing the costs through the roof. The problem is the fragility of the entire power grid as we know how unreliable it is especially with sabotage playing a key role.
I fully understand how bad things are but at the same time have been benefitting from this mess in an around about way. There is a problem with the golf course sub station about 1 km from where I live and this now cannot be touched due to the risk of never being able to start up again. Every time we are turned off it takes a few hours to get it back making the outages into serious hours being lost. The last outage we had was the early hours of Saturday morning and have dodged all the others thus far (fingers crossed).
Tis is going to be a rough winter for businesses trying to survive and keep things normal which is not going to be easy. Retrenchments will signal the first steps as companies cut back trying to ride this next challenge out. Rising costs are going to be the downfall however as there is a limit to what people can pay for services or goods before they call it quits.
All I can say thank God I am in Crypto as at least that is more than most will have.
