Tag: loadshedding

Second worst job in SA

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Social Media Manager for Eskom being at number 1.

But Social Media Manager for the City of Cape Town must be in at number 2.

Because there’s not enough electricity to go around nationally, the City is obligated to cut its power to certain areas at certain times to reduce the strain on the overall system. There are timetables for that process, and we’ve been through this a lot before on here. And while the national “supplier”, Eskom, has different stages of loadshedding which apply to the rest of the country, Cape Town can use its pumped-storage facility at Steenbras to sometimes lessen the effect of the loadshedding for City customers.

Less so on the weekends, because you can’t just keep creating free energy. That’s not how physics works.

The City tries to provide up to two stages of load-shedding protection where feasible. At the high stages of load-shedding, it becomes more challenging. Over weekends, when the demand is lower, the City often sheds close to the same stage as Eskom to build reserves for the week ahead. It does the maintenance of the Steenbras plant too.

The City then announces or updates its plan via social media and then the people get angry at the City.

Usually, people get angry because they are inconvenienced by the loadshedding that the City has announced, somehow failing to realise that this loadshedding is often less, but perhaps more importantly NEVER WORSE, than for the rest of the country.

What I am saying is that it’s not the City’s fault, but they still get the blame.

And when these people aren’t inconvenienced, because of the City’s intervention?

The City getting a lot more blame this weekend because there’s a big rugby game (URC Final, Stormers v Munster) in Cape Town on Saturday evening, and there is (nationwide) loadshedding. For some reason, people who are going to be loadshod during the game seem to think it’s a personal vendetta by the City, and they’re not happy.

Wouter Swart doesn’t have a single friend whose house he might be able to watch the game at.
And that’s sad.

Ilse Engelbrecht says that she’s in the same boat, but then she gets called out by Lionel. He says that she’s lying, and reminds her that she’s invited round to their place. Looks like Ilse was going to be watching the final with Lionel and she was just after some internet attention.

Yes, Vanessa. Every single TV in Cape Town will be off. There won’t be anywhere with electricity in the whole of the Western Cape. No-one will have a clue what’s going on. As usual.

Come now, Babs. It’s not about tonight’s rugby match. It’s a longer term problem. I’m surprised that you haven’t been aware of it before. And… wait… in what way are the away fans being treated badly?
Surely anyone who has come over to SA for the match will… er… be at the match? Or do you really think that a) Loadshedding is an issue in the south of Ireland, and b) the City of Cape Town somehow has some control over that?

Are you quite mad, Babs Ryan?!?

I did a teeny, tiny bit of research and it seems that it’s actually Eskom that has instituted Stage 5 at 17:00. . And yet it’s CoCT that’s being spiteful?

Honestly, Ronel Cripps. Get real, man.

And then, this:

Always, as Elise Mayer Bouwer tell us, “on an weakrnd”.

Look, I used an AI-powered translation machine thing and it thinks (after quite some deliberation) that Elise is aghast that there is loadshedding on a weekend. Is that unusual? Well, let’s have look at how loadshedding has actually been spread across the days of the week this year, shall we?

Aaand… yes. It does seem that it is always on an weakrnd:

via theoutlier.co.za

…and every single other day as well. Except – actually rather annoyingly – Tuesday 21st March.

So yes, technically, Elise is correct. But I don’t think that her assertion is particularly valuable. Narima is the one who has spotted the bigger pattern here:

And it was a strong start in her comment. That top line is 100% accurate.
But then back onto shooting the messenger in the second half. Muppet.

Look, I get that loadshedding is annoying. It annoys us all. But I can’t help but think that you’re barking up the wrong tree by taking potshots at the City in all of this mess. While they might not be perfect, you’d do well to understand that they’re not responsible for loadshedding. And maybe you need to take a look outside our comfortable little bubble and see what sort of a state the rest of the country is in, before you go wishing for some sort of change in local governance. Because I can assure you, it’s really not very pretty.

Seeing the light

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We’ve been waiting for this day for a long while. And now it’s come very suddenly. At 2pm today, I got a call telling me that the solar installers are coming around tomorrow.

And they’re going to install some solar.

As regular readers of this blog will know, loadshedding is arguably the most dominant force in South Africa right now. It affects everything, and while we have no control over the things outside our home, we can at least do something about what’s going on in our house.

Not that we should have to. We already pay the government money to supply us with electricity. But then we also pay them for stuff like security and healthcare, and we still have to privately top those up to get any decent, viable service.

This system won’t take us completely off the grid. That would be desirable, but also outlandishly expensive (not that this is in any way cheap). But it will cut our bill by at least 80%. And it will mean that we’re able to live our lives with some degree of normality, and a bit more on our terms. Work will be easier. Food won’t spoil as quickly. No more last minute dashes for the kettle or the microwave. Expensive devices won’t break due to constant power cuts and surges. There will be sport on the big screen. The beagle will have a nightlight.

We’re still very lucky to be able to do this. And it’s weird that access to such a basic human right is a luxury.

I’m not going to be a solar wanker, claiming that my altruism is lessening the load on the rest of the country, nor am I ever, ever going to utter the phrase:

Yeah, we don’t even know when loadshedding is happening anymore.

But I am looking forward to our first session of loadshedding once our batteries are charged up, and there simply being… life as normal.

Whatever that means.

Why has everything taken so long?

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A frustrating morning which on review makes it look like I’ve been really lazy.

Not so: every single little job has taken longer than it should. Gutter work that needed a lot more effort than seems reasonable (but was worth getting right*, looking at the weekend forecast). Pool work that was more complicated than it should have been (and required some arm-deep work underwater – brrrr). The static bike “computer” having to be dismantled and repaired. A hole in the ceiling to patch up. The washing machine playing silly buggers. Tomorrow’s blog post to write. Images to edit for the school.

Just simple stuff that took ages and filled the morning.

Oh, and all of that against the backdrop of 12 hours of power cuts including ALL THREE of these:

…and more besides.

The afternoon will be spent watching horseriding over on the far side of the mountain.
The evening will apparently be spent in darkness.

* although i’m not completely convinced that i have done

It’s happening next door

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Botswana has implemented loadshedding. That might not seem very surprising to people “overseas”, but generally, Botswana is regarded as the stable, unfluttered, well-managed, “sensible cousin” bit of the Southern Africa. Well, the bit on the continent, anyway: Mauritius is the gold standard for excellence if you’re willing to cross a bit of ocean. More beaches than Botswana too.
But look:

It reads almost word for word like an Eskom announcement. And indeed, why not copy the text from the experts? A couple of points regarding the above: the footer unironically stating that they are “Powering Botswana To Prosperity” (except for the next few weeks, it seems). And the images top right, which are actually the same image, but with one very slightly rotated. Sadly, this only serves to suggest that the transmission line in question is falling over. Prescient.

Of course, we’re also in for blackouts this evening, including one at dinner time. Spotting this ahead of time, I’ve fired up the braai and we’re going to make the most of it with some decent meat and some decent red wine. There’s nothing we can do about it, and constant unfettered rage (like this lady – wow) will surely only lead to an early grave (which will mean less incidences of loadshedding in your lifetime, but still…).
So we’re going to cook oor die kole this evening, saving electricity we haven’t got and making the most of the situation. The glass is always half full, unless it’s that shiraz from Tulbagh (which it is), in which case it gets drained pretty quickly.

Pre-drinks?

A rather nice Bloody Nora (with this and this). Soooo good.

See you on the other side.

Off again – and that font?!?

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The issue with our ailing power utility – so we were told – wasn’t the years and years of rampant corruption, but rather the guy who was in charge. He was in the process of stepping down when he gave that bombshell interview about all the corruption and was politely(?) asked to leave immediately.

So, now that he has gone, everything should be ok. Right?

Wrong.

Weirdly, it seems that he wasn’t the issue. So we have no idea what the problem could actually be*, but there clearly is a problem of some sort. Because I’m sitting here for another 10 hours without power today, because of the ongoing demand and supply problem. We want 31.3MW, they can only give us 24.7MW. And if you don’t cut the power to cover that shortfall, everything falls over and it’s a very bad thing.

Those figures come from this tweet from last night:

And I actually love the way that they’ve done their best to cushion the blow by using a whimsical font. Who do we think came up with that idea?

“Not looking great on the grid figures tonight. We’re dangerously short and we need to tell people.”
“OK. Send the twee… no… wait. Do you have a kind of handwritingy font we could use?”
“What?”
“You know. Something a bit fun and disarming.”
“But we’re the official state power utility. Shouldn’t we be using the official state fonts?”
“Well, yes. But let’s show our human side. Just something a bit playful and quirky to take their minds off the awful numbers.”
“Well, I mean, I have got this one…”
“Like, actually Oh Em Gee! It’s So frikkin perfect! Look at the devil-may-care lack of connection on the loops! Observe the mildly curved downstrokes! The capricious overshoot on the Es and Ms! Do it!”
“Er… right. The numbers are still bloody horrendous, though.”
“Who cares? It’s so pretty! Quick, just click SEND before the boss comes back!”

I imagine that’s pretty much how it went, anyway.

Sadly, using my scientific brain, I was able to see through the eccentric and unprofessional choice of typeface, and I’m actually pretty worried about just how bad the situation is. But hey, it’s so easy to get bogged down in bad news. I guess that we should take solace in the fact that they haven’t used Comic Sans yet, so maybe we’re still somewhere just above rock bottom.

* although there is still that years and years of rampant corruption thing, but… surely not?!