Eskom ... is there ANY chance? In CPT there is

General Discussions
3258

It might not take much, just a change of attitude. Let me tell something that happened on my recent return, which was on the one hand myself being an idiot, but also how I (tried to?) fixed it.

As I left the airport, a guy came running, asking if I needed a taxi. I was tired and frankly wanted to be left alone, so somewhat knee-jerk I inquired whether I really look like some tourist who needs a taxi. Poor guy seemed offended and said, hey, even local guys need taxis, and in that moment I realised I was being an arse. So I made a point of actually making physical contact and thanking him for doing an important job. Hopefully restoring the trust. That’s how we mess things up, so often, and I plead guilty.

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3259

Respect.

When we are out, or shopping, man, nothing gets me to say something faster than when people talk down to waiters/waitresses or tellers.

Like males who think the waitress is their personal “toy” … me like, do you have a wife or daughter? How would you like that to happen to them?

Dang, the regional manager and all the senior managers around a table, me the stooge with them, they joked with this 18-year-old waitress, lewd jokes. Could see she was uncomfortable. Until I looked up at the regional manager and said loudly … my daughter was just born … thought I was going to lose my job. Big boss just smiled, De Ruyter reminds me of him, and the lady was treated with respect the entire night.

The “Karens” … are you seriously taking out your frustrations here and now? “Where is the manager!!!” (at the top of my voice)

The other day, my granddaughter and I walked past this Spars Manager’s cubicle. There is this guy voicing his frustrations at the manager, a tiny female, about why she allowed some intoxicated males to buy liquor at the linked liquor shop and “allowed” them to consume it in the public space outside the shop.

Listening for like 2-3 minutes. Walked even closer up to this guy and asked him. Let me get this straight. Do you want this lady telling the female tellers there to handle intoxicated males consuming alcohol in a public space and all you can do is bitch and moan for the last 10 minutes? Why did you not intervene yourself? Or how about, I turned around pointing, you ask those police officers there to handle it?

Guy walked out without a further word mumbling something like “I work for the police”.

Good people doing nothing … comes to mind.

Again, respect for realizing catching yourself in a bad moment.

3260

1. Eskom’s death spiral seemed to worsen up to end of March 2023

  • Revenue increased to R259.5-billion on a 9.61% tariff increase, but sales decreased by 5%;
  • Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) declined by R14.9-billion, from R53-billion in 2022 to R38-billion in 2023;
  • Operating profit fell to R5.6-billion from R20.9-billion;
  • Net losses after tax increased to R23.9-billion from R11.9-billion in 2022;
  • Open-cycle gas turbines diesel spending increased to R29.7-billion from R14.7-billion in 2022;
  • Arrear municipal debt grew to R58.5-billion;
  • A debt pile of R424-billion cost R72-billion to service;
  • Bailouts amounted to R21.9-billion;
  • The energy availability factor reached a low of 56.03% from 62.02% in 2022. There were 280 days of load shedding;
  • Kusile Unit 4 achieved commercial operation on 31 May 2022; and
  • Transmission network performance declined while the distribution network achieved good performance.

2. But Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana believes there is hope on the horizon

Three projects under the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme with a capacity of 150MW will be ready for connection to the grid in November 2023.

By 2025, nine projects with a total capacity of more than 1,000MW will be connected to the grid under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, with a further 1,000MW in the next phase.

In addition, rooftop solar of 4,100MW has been installed.

3261

@tinuva you also saw the “joke”. :grinning:

Deep dwang on numbers on the one side, yet the man in charge of all the numbers quotes some MW’s coming online … yet not a word about storm weeks/evening loads when renewables don’t perform so well.

What a joke. Actually, what a sad story, the finance minister trying to shed some light on a dire situation.

To add insult to injury …

And “they” want to push National Health care … makes me sick to my stomach.

The end is nigh … winter is coming … I hope. (for the ANC)

3262

There are still five tankers offloading in the bay @ Mossel Bay…

3263

You, yes you, are paying for all of this, the bailouts, making up those “losses” etc etc. Not a word about fixing any problems, not a word on stemming the theft, sabotage, feeding at the trough….

Oh so telling, about what is not being said. Also no mention of EAF, or that Eskom is not installing any Solar rooftop or otherwise, only the IPPs….

Groetnis

3264

This article is again, for me, a perfect example of the “rage economy” in action. Compare the Moneyweb article with the very clickbaity BT article you posted. Same content, and MW was 4 days earlier too.

What Eskom did wasn’t just good business, or even to help us watch our boys in action… no no no… it was a trick! And they are tricking YOU! You should be angry!

Not aimed at you, not at all, and as TTT always says, article still has some factual stuff in it. But I’m just so over the entire stable of Broad Media publications…

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3265

No offence taken, I should know better :man_facepalming:

3266

No, not at all! I like that we are bringing to the attention all the news items on the topic! I just took the opportunity to get another jab in at Broad Media. Gaaah… I’ve grown to hate them :slight_smile:

3267

Yes, this is sobering for us concerned folk. Attitude is very important in SA. You need to genuinely engage the other person. It is respectful and necessary.

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3268

Agreed there are a lot of news sources that I cant stand at all anymore. Trying to frame every little thing as something that should cause outrage.

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3269

Balanced fair review is then out of the question I see? :rofl:

Let me fuel the fire …

And the part that is of interest in THIS article:

Thanks.

To extrapolate. I learned that here on this thread from the comments, or when Villiage Idiot climbs in with details, I read every article with a “bag of salt” now. And I don’t get “worked up”. I actively seek the unbiased facts that the article’s core is based on. That is how I get an overall picture over time.

Like the Koeberg thing, their are delays. NNR decision is the core. I just hope no political interference will force their decision either way. Engineers must make it based on cold hard facts.

Now for some speculation … the delays were caused on purpose (criminal syndicates) so that Cpt cannot have Koeberg switched on to offset more LS levels as it makes the ANC look stupid. :rofl: … find the unbiased fact in there.

3270

Yeah, where is he when we need to be brought down to earth? :stuck_out_tongue:

3271

Broad Media is hardly ever fair, in my experience.

I am still in favour of discussing the content. Don’t take my negative reaction as saying it should not be discussed. I just have a massive guard in front of my negativity gate…

3272

This Eskom/SA thing and money, ANC running a “calculated campaign” …

… feeding trough comes to mind. “Pay them good” so that you are voted in every 5 years.

Man, when this house of cards comes down, geez.

This song comes to mind … Ja Ja Ja Blah Blah Blah

3273

That’s a terrible plan. It is expensive, and it only gets you 1.3 million votes. Well… less, because only about 180k of them make more than 600k.

Remember: Teachers are government workers. So are firemen, traffic cops, policemen…

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3274

Don’t think the firemen, traffic cops, policemen/women are earning R1mil pa.

The core point is the amount of millionaires working in Gov since the ANC took over.

The ones “being paid off” are in charge of the “budgets”, unions, and criminal syndicates. Strategically placed, well connected, connections everywhere like banks, SARS, and police.

Hence the little consequence to the ones that are “given up”, “put on the alter for the greater crooks to flourish”. No real active, driven, prosecution to follow sentencing.

Courts seem to have their hold relinquished … but the “teeth” are not “there” anymore. Just keep on litigating and all that.

The “feeding trough” … I borrowed that from De Ruyter.

3275

Does Koeberg get used to reduce Cape Town’s loadshedding levels similar to Steenbras then? I thought it’s Eskom owned and operated and didn’t think it is used to reduce Cape Town’s level, but honestly don’t know, hence the question.

I remember reading that if both units are offline it might be a problem for Cape Town, but I think that had more to do with transmission to Cape Town.

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3276

haven’t disappeared - just reading more and posting less :crazy_face: why? → don’t think much has changed, so the same themes generally just get repeated.

But since I am posting; on the OCGT use I am generally perplexed when media/whoever “discovers/catches out” OCGT use - Eskom is not hiding it, they had multiple televised !#^$#% media conferences saying “we will likely be burning at least R30bn in diesel to lower load shedding”. They even post the use on twitter

Evening Peak 31/10/2023 (18:43)
Eskom Availability: 28 452 MW.
Total Demand: 30 817 MW :chart_with_upwards_trend::bangbang:
Loadshedding : 3 016 MW
-Number of OCGT’s Utilised: 18 -Renewable Gen: 2 433 MW

I, like most people would prefer it to not be necessary, but here we are. Some economists did some modelling earlier in the year

OCGT_Economics
OCGT_Economics286×711 129 KB

One of the major constraints on OCGT use, other than cost, is the logistics of supplying and storing sufficient diesel for more continuous use. Apparently Ankerlig and Gourikwa were designed to store “only” fuel for a week when operating about 8 hours per day. Last year we had increased load shedding when bad weather delayed offloading of diesel.

So, the number of tankers in Mossel Bay, possibly indicates that Eskom has at least learned in one respect.

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3277

Now THAT makes a whole lot of sense. Thank you.

In other news …

Maybe there is a lot going on quietly behind the scenes. Like when SARS gets “your number”, o boy.