Who does not believe load shedding is still with us?

**Marq** · 25-Aug-09, 10:44 AM

Last night we were sitting in the dark for nearly 2 hours. Now there is nothing untoward about this and Durban Electricity reflected a technical outage. So should we think this is true and technical problems and cable faults are to blame?

Well I would have, except that we were out last monday at roughly the same time for about 3 and a half hours then. And on reflection the week previous to that. I phoned them then, to hear the same vague replies to my questions.

When you phone the Durban Electricity dept, the initial answering service gives a list of areas that are out to tell that they are aware of the problem. I have phoned within a short time of the outage to find that our area is all ready on the list. If you have the patience, you can hear a looooonnnnngggg list of problem areas.

Then I hear Pretoria goes down suburb by suburb during the week - sometimes some areas are out for up to 8 hours at a time. People from Jhb tell the same story. Cape town guys seem to be usually in the dark so I have not heard of an outage problem from that region.

So....are we being subjected to load shedding - this time without a schedule and without warning and being treated like mushrooms again?

**Dave A** · 25-Aug-09, 03:18 PM

Even if it isn't load shedding, it's still an infrastructure maintenance problem

**Marq** · 25-Aug-09, 07:11 PM

Apparently its not infrastructure related. Its coal related.

There is still a shortage and supply to the various stations.
The main reason for this is that apparently the export price of $100/ton is a better deal than R100/ton that Eskom is paying locally. All the reasons given for increasing the price of electricity have not been activated by Eskom. One of these of course being the higher price of coal, yet they have yet to pay any higher rates.

**Dave A** · 27-Aug-09, 09:40 PM

Well, Eskom admits power supply is tight. And check out those losses coming up while you're about it

**Marq** · 29-Aug-09, 12:52 PM

With all these numbers being flouted I just had a look at what I am paying per k/h. Per my last statement my average cost is 61c/kwh. In dollars roughly 7,5 - 8 us cents. Per a table I found here, the avg price in the usa is 9,87 us cents.

A recent discussion with some guys in the power game revealed that they were expecting a price of R1/kwh to be the average charge coming soon. My calc was before the 32% increase announcement so that 61c will probably be 80cents and then if the expected further hit thats being bandied about comes into being; this will give us the R1 number. It would seem that we are comparable to the rest of the world.

I think the question is are we paying for all the 'poor' people out there? Eskom is blinding us with BS as the average out the numbers over the socialist system we have in place.

Looking at this para

South Africa enjoys one of the world's cheapest power costs, with the price per kilowatt hour averaging three US cents, compared with between eight and nine US cents in OECD countries. -- Reuters

So now I am wondering - are we being ripped off in Durban by the Politburo once again? or are being charged the norm and eskom is trying to pull a fast one on us.

What are you guys paying out there for your electricity?

**tec0** · 29-Aug-09, 05:02 PM

Well if you donâ€™t know by now you will probably never know. The fact is Eskom is in hot water right now. With so much money missing it defies belief! However the power problem was not new there were plans to build a few PowerStationâ€™s back in the day but it was scrapped partly thanks to â€œnewâ€ management. However one must ask where is the sun-powered PowerStation? The answer is simple there is no new developments â€œI stand to be correctedâ€.

Fact is Eskom needs to wake up and soon, this is no longer a joke and I donâ€™t think it ever was a joke to start with. Eskom is showing no discipline when it comes to money and we are paying for it. The power increases, lost of production, commercial losses and economical strain are all examples of why we need to demand that a proper audit must be done. It is the responsible lawful thing to do. But when it comes to accountability all the big fish just simply disappear from the radar. This also must end. Our government must do what is best for his people. We entrust the government act on the peopleâ€™s behalf thus we must now ask the government to investigate and see why there is so much money missing.

But I personally think ColdFusion will be perfected long before this will ever happen.

**Dave A** · 29-Aug-09, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by Marq

So now I am wondering - are we being ripped off in Durban by the Politburo once again?

I think what Eskom is quoting is the bulk rate - Durban and other municipalities mark up to cover infrastructure costs etc. (Yes, that probably includes "cross-subsidies.")

However, Eskom's claim of US 3c per kilowatt seems incredible. That would put the average at about 23c SA. Some of those preferential juice suckers like the aluminium smelters must be getting one hell of a bargain.

Subsidising the poor is one thing, but do we need to be subsidising foreign smelting operations.

**Dave A** · 30-Aug-09, 11:06 AM

Aha! Some relevant news on those smelters:

One of the first high-profile victims of the global economic meltdown late last year was Iceland, which revealed itself to be an island trading as a giant hedge fund.

Now we see that Eskom is a monster aluminium trader -- and not a particularly good one at that. The power utility has recorded a near R10-billion loss mainly through its exposure to the aluminium market.

How could Eskom lose R10-billion in aluminium trading? Does it not know that its job is to provide electricity, not take speculative bets in the worldâ€™s commodity markets?

To get a sense of the scale of the loss consider that the electricity utility, with sales of R53-billion and costs of about R55-billion, would have been closer to breaking even but for the R9.5-billion loss it suffered through its exposure to international commodity markets, chiefly aluminium.

The loss is unrealised at this stage, meaning that Eskom is hoping the value of the contracts it holds will improve. So do all of us.

The near R10-billion loss represents more or less R1 000 on average per household a year. Given the choice, if I wanted exposure to aluminium, I would have put the R1 000 into buying BHP Billiton shares.

The contracts are confidential to government, Eskom and these customers. It has been well understood that pricing has been based on the utility sharing in some of the upside when aluminium and ferrochrome prices rise.

Now this week we learn that Eskom has had a significant exposure should prices fall.
full story from M&G here

**tec0** · 30-Aug-09, 01:17 PM

Well, if anything money is money but why the hell do Eskom need more money when they have the whole South Africa as a customer. Then there are the countless contracts that are also just feeding them more money. But to be honest aluminium is a good metal to invest in. More and more industries are using aluminium such as Toyota to name but one.

So in all probability it is lightly that they will get their money back. However for that kind of money they could have invested in all kinds of local fabrications and other local strategies and actually do something a bit more positive. Fact is we need to generate consumables. Simple electronics such as computer components is also steady money at the moment.