Ridiculous power supply

**ians** · 04-Mar-20, 08:53 AM

We are in a no win situation.

We take steps to try eliminate damage to customers equipment due to low voltage (dropping below 180 VAC) and spikes (tripping out at 265 VAC) at a cost of over R150 000.00 including online UPS units... the council send out an electrician with a duspol meter ...who tells me the power is on... I just smile (that's all you can do) because the building lighting is not on the UPS ...every time the voltage dips or surges ...you have a 4 min downtime while the trip connect resets... i know i can shorten the time ,...but it is bette rto let everything like the aircons settle before it re energises the contactor.

then the load shedding starts ...anything from 2 -12 hours ...depending on the system...once or twice a day.

Then to add to the mix we have a surge so high that it destroys the lightning protection devices and everything electronic in the building and i mean everything from LED lamps to PCB's in aircon...gates alarm systems ...you name it... the insurance refuses to cover the claim because the insurance company didnt tick the "surge protection" clause in the policy and they can prove there was no storm on the day of the claim by the weather report...nobody can tell me what caused the surge ...which resulted in an entire road and some being affected ...at a massive repair cost to all the residents.

I actually dont know how companies are surviving in this crazy unreliable power supply.

I have customers who have to wait 2- 3 hours for equipment to warm up before they can start working...then the power goes off for 2 hours and the entire factory stands.

Now it sounds like your pension is going to subsidies more looting...packages... reshuffling for the "new" Eskom

There has been no load shedding for a couple of days ...container loads of solar panels...inverters and batteries are lining up at the harbour... at least this time it wont be like what happened with the first round of load shedding ..it suddenly stopped one morning and we sat with millions of rands worth of generators in containers... i think people have realised that until suitably qualified people are put back in the right place...it will just keep getting worse.

**Dave A** · 05-Mar-20, 07:55 AM

The looting of the copper in the system isn't helping any. Can't blame Eskom for that.

**ians** · 05-Mar-20, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by Dave A

The looting of the copper in the system isn't helping any. Can't blame Eskom for that.

load shedding is making it easier to loot copper... they dont have to hit a pick through the cable to blow the fuse... they just wait for the load shedding and they have hours to strip overhead copper lines... bussbars etc.