I have an idea that might be able to work and maybe contribute towards ending loadshedding.

Doing away with load shedding ( rolling blackouts )

According to Eskom we need to brace ourselves for a protracted period of loadshedding.
They are talking about 18 months but we all know by now that it will in all probability, judging by
their predictions and timelines in the past, be nothing short of 36 months.

Why loadshedding ? To put it simply, they can not produce enough for our requirements.

Load shedding, even although scheduled, is counter productive and extremely unfair towards
consumers who go out of their way to conserve electricity. Billions of rands are lost by business
because of loadshedding.

Surely there must be a way to avoid load shedding. The advantages of no loadshedding are too
numerous to list.

How do we reduce our consumption in a fair and sustainable way and put Eskom in a position
that it should not be necessary to loadshed ?

Business needs to carry on unaffected so as not to have a negative impact on the economy.

My idea is aimed at domestic consumers only and has numerous advantages. They are:

1. It will not have any negative effect on business.
2. It will hopefully lure people who are presently illegally connected, to connect legally.
3. It will benefit the poor.
4. It will increase Eskom's income derived from the sale of electricity.
5. It should encourage everyone to use electricity conservatively.

The idea is simple.

Instead of blanket loadshedding everyone, only load shed the consumers who use too much.

The fourth industrial revolution is upon us and smart metering should not be too much of a
challenge. The meters should be capable of monitoring usage over a 24 hour period and shutting
off the supply to the installation if the allocated usage is exceeded.

It could work as follows:

There can be 4 plans available for purchasing electricity.

Plan A: Daily usage of 0 to 6 units @ R1 per unit.
Plan B: Daily usage of 0 to 14 units @ R2 per unit.
Plan C: Daily usage of 0 to 21 units @ R3 per unit.
Plan D: Unlimited usage at R4 per unit.

The customer when purchasing prepaid electricity must specify for which plan they are buying.
As soon as the plan is entered at the point of sale, the meter knows what the daily limit is.

To avoid meters all turning off during the night in the event of excess usage, 6 monitoring
cycles can be used. The consumer has no say into which monitoring cycle they fall.

It could be spread out as follows:

Cycle 1: Midnight to midnight.
Cycle 2: 4am to 4am.
Cycle 3: 8am to 8am.
Cycle 4: Midday to midday.
Cycle 5: 4pm to 4pm.
Cycle 6: 8pm to 8pm.

The president has dreams of a smart city and bullet trains.

The above suggestion should be peanuts to implement.

What do you think ?


Cheers & peace out ... Derek