Damn, I like the Cummins diesel genies auto-starting at 20% SOC, after one has received a truckload full of MPPTs neatly mounted … 
Pharmacist too … I go to them for Dr and dental problems first. 
O bugger …
It says this is the first concrete effort at retaliation by members of the US government over the growing view in Washington that South Africa’s relationship with Russia is moving in a direction that threatens America’s national interests.
The letter centers on an annual forum for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or Agoa.
The act provides duty-free access to the US trade market for about three dozen African nations.
South Africa, one of the continent’s most developed economies, is its biggest beneficiary, exporting about $3 billion worth of goods to the United States through Agoa last year.
Back in Feb 2023 a US Republican proposed a bill in the US Congress to investigate the US-SA relationship when we had our naval exercise with the Russkis (could the SA Navy participate with more than a rubber duckie?).
The Bill was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and is stalled there, but now the above brings additional scrutiny. But the gent had good reason to inspect this as the US sponsors considerable goodwill in SA (medical research and…)
No wonder they were not welcomed in Cape Town.
I really like our mayor …
See the vid too.
I don’t buy the “cooler temps” anymore. We have had winters before, and LS has never before “disappeared” during winter.
I’m sorry, but for all the core reasons, this is the one … "Its final boost has come from the most unexpected quarter: breakdowns are lower than expected. "
It came from here …
Cause anyone who says renewables, there are not enough wind farms, and this weather, bah, there is no sun.
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In one interview I saw an eskom manager saying there is already more PV at businesses and homes than at the eskom solar farms - that must surely help too.
I absolutely do.
I have had the pleasure (Or perhaps displeasure) of managing the generators and cooling plant at a fruit packing facility for a couple of months, its crazy how much easier everything runs in the winter, from the refrigeration compressors all the way to the big diesel gennies, everything can just be pushed that little harder.
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Man… look at that EAF chart. At times, it goes back up. Overall it trends down, but at times… it does go up. We’re seeing an up at the moment. Don’t get excited. This is no different from that last time when they put out a press release because one of their stations managed to hit 70%. It lasted maybe a week…
The only thing that irks me a little, is how they (Makwana, I’m guessing) is boasting that part of the reason is that they cut out the position of COO, so now the power station managers have a more direct line to management.
They didn’t eliminate the position of COO. The guy resigned – who can blame him – and they haven’t replaced him. The company is running without a COO, and the head of the board is turning it into a “win”.
Read AdrR’s book, those who haven’t done it already. Makwana is having his 15 minutes of fame, but there is no way his management style will work in the long run.
The weather … and on top of that, the GWs we are talking about here do not come from some businesses and home installs with winter weather.
I agree with that … but as I said, we had winters in the last decade too, and LS was never stopped.
Because the ANC said, "stop the looting and sabotage guys … "
Give a station the spare parts, the staff dedicated, and the TLC it needs, and cold weather, with no “interferences”, and the repairs will stick and be improved on.
I mean, page 270, around the bottom. The new board comes in, and at the first meeting, the COSATU general secretary says he doesn’t like that they are caught off guard by load shedding, so he suggests that any implementation of load shedding should be preceded by a board decision.
De Ruyter, somewhat incredulously, tells the board that it is impossible for anyone to tell the grid operator what he can and cannot do.
“If the phone rings at two in the morning, there is no time for a board meeting; we need to decide there and then”.
At this point the chairman from Implats suggests: Maybe the board should, as part of its induction, visit the control room.
The rest of the chapter, of important letters going to the minister piling up on the desk of Makwana, while he insists that everything must go via a board meeting, mires things in so much bureaucracy and red tape that this simply cannot turn out well.
But in the interim… hey… we cut out the COO, and that is a “win”!
Snowball! He has been here! I can smell him distinctly!
Are you saying the board decided to not LS anymore?
That the board can vote for an offline “need repairs” station to be back online?
That there is no effect on the ground, that the stations are not being repaired and kept repaired, that it that has nothing to do with anything?
The board politics here are of no consequence … not even AdR could make this happen on this scale boet, where the stations are not being actively looted and damaged for ongoing nefarious purposes.
Something changed on the ground level where the actual stations are running.
No. But it sounded like that is what you were saying
The board cannot make that call. Technically, they are supposed to be a non-executive board. They shouldn’t even be making decisions about the running of power stations, they should leave that to the management. The management they currently don’t have. But right now, that is the model they are trying.
Nevertheless, I believe we are experiencing a temporary improvement, based on the fact that some maintenance was done (and all of that, would have been planned by the outgoing CEO, and even started on his watch), and the weather is indeed cooler. But we’re still just one breakdown away from going back where we were.
De Ruyter did note in his book, that despite “failing” in the most measurable way, he did establish a change in culture at some stations. The maintenance is being done. The place is being kept clean. People are getting some of their pride and purpose back. I’m not dismissing any of those positive things, I just don’t think we’ve seen the last of the bad times. I think the present model, where the board is trying to run the company, is a really bad idea.
I have also heard that the COO leaving has solved problems.
This has bothered me for a while.
The sensible margin between generation and load that allows an operational responsive load-shedding may have been eliminated—a safety margin, if you will.
In other words, the ability to be able to prevent a nationwide blackout has been compromised.
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Don’t think load shedding dissappeared as it is stage 3/4 during peaks. FYI, similar period last year vs this year
Evening Peak 13/06/2023
Eskom Availability:
28 738MW
Total demand: 30 844 MW
Loadshedding: 3 252 MW
———————————
-Number of OCGT’s utilised: 7
-Renewable Generation: 1 910MW
-IPP Availability Dispatchable): 844
MW
-RES: Wind 1 718 MW, CSP 192 MW and PV 0 MW
-Eskom availability Incl: 0 MW Cold Res & Non Comm)
-Demand Incl. ILS 447 MW, VPS 90 MW, LS
-Peak in Peak sent out: 27 055 MW
I don’t think the board can actually do that. I mean, they can try, but the grid operator makes this call, and he will simply tell them he is unable to comply because… and then shove a piece of regulation under their noses.
It is precisely this that makes me worried. The loss of the COO ( Chief operating officer) is cited as the reason for additional grid availability.
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I am not convinced that is the most accurate summary provided by the media… some of the actual interview. Obviously he could have said much more that was not included in the clip but is quoted as actually saying:
“The amelioration has not been a fluke,” Makwana said. He attributed part of the gains to the company’s decisions to scrap the post of chief operating officer and give individual plant managers more direct access to senior executives — changes he said had improved morale.
Guess it is possible that individual power station managers/teams having a degree of autonomy could be beneficial.
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Oh I agree, but I am questioning whether they really didn’t have that before.