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Watch less soapies - Eskom
01/04/2006 11:24 - (SA)
Michele O'Connor, Die Burger
Cape Town - If Cape residents cut down on their daily soap opera favourites, there may be fewer electricity blackouts during the winter months.
Cape residents may have to gives serious consideration in the coming 90 days to make do without their favourite TV shows to save precious power.
Jacob Moroga, Eskom's transmission general manager, said on Friday at a launch of the integrated plan of the provincial risk management committee for electrical supply that the consumption of electricity simply went sky-high between 18:30 and 20:00 in the evening - "the soapy time slot" - as he dubbed it.
"According to Eskom, Western Cape residents demand as much as 200MW more electricity in this period compared with other daytime periods.
"We may have to negotiate with the SABC to move their soapies to other time slots," he joked.
Power cuts
According to him the coming 90 days - the period in which Koeberg's unit 1 will be repaired and unit 2 be in outage for compulsory maintenance, will be the crisis period in the province.
"Should things go according to plan unit 1 should be fully operational by the last week of May and unit 2 in the last week of July.
He said it was expected that the shortage of electricity would reach a peak between May and July.
These shortages fluctuate between 323MW and 361MW, which would result in controlled power cuts.
"These power cuts should not be for longer than two hours per area.
"The plan includes four scenarios allowing for the management of crises as electricity supply can even be influenced by factors such as fog and dust."
Meanwhile Thulani Gcabashe, Eskom's executive chief, said the new rotor for Koeberg's unit 1 would be lifted off the SAS Drakensberg in Cape Town with the aid of two 440 ton cranes.
"It will take about a week to transport the 200 tons rotor to Koeberg.
One of the cranes is already in the harbour and a second will be transported to the Cape from Johannesburg."
According to Tasneem Essop, provincial minister for the environment, planning and economic development, several role players such as Eskom, The Western Cape provincial government, the city council and RED1 truly sweated to get this plan on the table, which will be in force until the end of September because of security reasons.
"In terms of the plan consumers will be kept informed on an ongoing basis of controlled power cuts and the times and areas in which it will occur.
"Emergency control centres of Eskom, the province and the city council will be manned from 07:00 until 19:00 to deal with enquiries.
"We will also give serious attention to the demand management of electricity.
"Big industries will also be motivated to utilise power generators, especially during peak times.
The Western Cape premier, Ebrahim Rasool, said the recent shortage in electricity supply in the province could be compared to the water shortage - an indication that Cape residents have to develop a new lifestyle.
- Die Burger
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