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Thread: What the goverment plans to do

  1. #11
    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
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    What truly worries me is the fact that the government might be focusing on the wrong short term solutions problem. They are looking at consumers to help solve this problem, but the real solution seems to be that Eskom are not running their coal plants at the rate they should run. I mean surely if some of the coal plants are down on their production, surely that is the first step in the process? What amazes me even more is that Eskom must surely loose profits because of their under production.
    Roelof Vermeulen (Entrepreneurship in large organizations)
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  2. #12
    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    In the governments response they said that draft amendments to the electricity regulation act would be out for comment by 30 Jan. 04 Feb and still waiting....anyone seen anything about this?
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    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    I managed to find the draft amendments on the DME's website. Mainly has to do with what the licensees (i.e. municipalities) have to prohibit by 2010. It's interesting, but I'll add some comments later.
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    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    So I've gone through the proposed regulations and made a list of what the licensees (municipalities) have to do.

    • Incandescent lights must be replaces with energy efficient ones.
    • Unoccupied buildings' lights must be turned off.
    • No street lights should be on during the day.
    • New dwellings with a value over R750000 must include solar geysers.
    • Dwellings larger than 300m2 must include solar gesyers.
    • All new installations must have a geyser blanket.
    • Office blocks, hospitals, hotels, resorts, and shopping complexes must incorporate solar water heating by 2010.
    • All geysers must be able to be turned off remotely by 2010.
    • All heating, ventilation and cooling systems (HVAC) must be able to be turned off remotely by 2010.
    • Swimming pool pumps and heating must be able to be turned off remotely (interestingly no date is set for this).
    • Street lights must be fitted with energy efficient bulbs.
    • Time use tariffs for customers who consume more than 500kWh a month, before 2010.

    Read the full blog post
    Certainly the two that stick out are that HVAC must be able to turned off remotely (you will certainly notice that!) and that consumers over 500kWH/month will be put onto a time use tariff (different rates at different times).

    How do you think the time use tariff change will affect your business?
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  5. #15
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    500 kWh per month is a pretty low threshold, even for an average domestic household.

    I've created a snap survey on Survey Monkey.

    To take the survey on your average monthly electricity consumption, click here

    I'll post a link to results later.
    Last edited by Dave A; 12-Feb-08 at 09:21 AM.

  6. #16
    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave A View Post
    500 kWh per month is a pretty low threshold, even for an average domestic household.
    Yes, it is particularly low. It will be interesting to see the split across provinces for the survey - come on people, answer that survey!
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  7. #17
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    I don't know exactly what thresholds and billing models that Eskom is planning to use, so I am basing my comments on the information that you have provided.

    I assume by "time sensitive electricity metering" you mean time-of-use billing.

    In my opinion 500 KWh is far too high, in fact I believe that time-of-use billing should start from zero.

    Let me explain. The problem that Eskom has is that demand is exceeding supply DURING PEAK HOURS. Time-of-use billing is the same model that Telkom and the cell phone companies use. They charge more during peak and less during off-peak.

    Lets say that the cost per unit(KWh) is 40c. If Eskom charged 30c during off peak and 60c during peak, then a lot of homes and businesses would make an effort to cut down on usage during peak. This could result in a saving for the user. The net result is that the usage of electricity would be "smoothed out". The average use of electricity would remain the same, but the peak demand would be reduced. This would solve the problem of demand exceeding supply.

    You will have the option of fitting a time switch to switch off your geyser during peak, or not to tumble dry or not have your pool filter running or have lights off in empty rooms during peak. For a small amount of effort you will save money and also solve the country's electricity problems. Lets face it, most people aren't going to make the effort if there is no monetary incentive.

    Other countries such as Canada are using this billing model for electricity.

    To sum up, I believe that time-of-use billing will solve our short term problems. I say it should start at zero.
    Last edited by Sefton; 12-Feb-08 at 02:58 PM.

  8. #18
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Essentially I agree with Sefton. Starting from zero makes sense and would be fair. However, government plainly does not want to start at zero - the question is why?

    And of course, once we get to the bottom of that, the next questions are - are the reasons fair and has the line been drawn at a fair level?

    The irony is that up until now, if you were a heavy user of electricity, you could negotiate a discounted rate!

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    Dave, that last sentence of yours is interesting. Assuming Eskom and the government did not mess up, then, purely from a business point of view, Eskom should be encouraging us to use more electricity, rather than less. However, the other side of the coin is that more natural resources would be consumed and more pollution would be created, so maybe the fact that they messed up is a blessing in disguise.

  10. #20
    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dave A View Post
    However, government plainly does not want to start at zero - the question is why?
    I reckon they don't want to penalise low income households. If that is the reason it is a pretty bad one.

    In Brazil, when they had to ration electricity (another form of price signalling), their biggest contributors were low income households. This makes quite a bit of sense as they have the most to lose (cost per household income).

    It would make more sense to have it start from zero, and look for ways to incentivise businesses to reduce electricity (e.g. discount if you reduce electricity consumption to below 80% of previous year's).
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