The one I posted, is PAYG. So it cost a wee bit more, but no “other” charges.
That pic was the real thing, paid this morning.
You sure about that? A bit gennie running at three quarters load, say a 50kW unit, 8 liters an hour, 0.2 liters per kWh or around R5.40 per kWh (maintenance not included, so probably closer to R6) ?
Jup. The man in question can do sums extremely well.
He does have a small gennie though. Battery charging if Eskom is also off.
The caveat sits in how many times his near-off-grid home has to rely on Eskom due to inclement weather PER YEAR … and that he can “talk” to his family.
Titbit: Me, I’m smiling, kids grow up to become teenagers, and then the electricity usage goes up!
Plus the price of acquiring one, R80k or whatnot?
His sums say, same as mine for me, that more panels (there will be little to no ROI), are cheaper than a big-ass gennie, with some Eskom units.
BUT WE ARE DERAILING.
That is what he pays per unit for where he is, PAYG on a farm, having done the sums in detail.
That would explain it. Generators make power at anything from R6/kWh to R20/kWh depending on how well it is loaded, petrol or Diesel, small or big, etc etc. I asked the question not because I think anyone is wrong in their own math, merely that in the larger sense it is possible for your own Diesel generator to cost less than Eskom, especially if you have a high line rental fee and low usage already.
Using a Diesel generator in this way is possibly cleaner than Eskom as well. They already run their peaking plants with Diesel, and Diesel is cleaner than coal… although I am fudging the numbers a bit, an OCGT does run at 50%+ while a good Diesel gennie tops out at maybe 35%.
I think you are confusing OCGT with CCGT. Combined cycle re-uses the wasted heat from open cycle and then you can achieve 50%+ efficiency.
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Aaah, yes you are right. I did confuse the two. Well, then burning that Diesel yourself is definitely cleaner. I mean… after you accounted for the transport costs to get it to you. Sh*t.
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It sounds postive …
Unplanned: 14 264MW
Under Maintenance: 5 370MW
Coming back online this week: 2 070MW
Now where talking …
Yeah, being cynical, somebody is gonna get bitten in the arse, and it ain’t gonna be the ones with the begging bowl
In more news, the official opening of one of the biggest PV/Battery farms anywhere was announced last week. Unfortunately Eskom can’t take full advantage yet because there are not sufficient grid connections.
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Good, “they” are learning …
Ok, maybe not …
Here is the keynote address that is from (also linked in the article), spooled up to the right point. I don’t think he is wrong. Apartheid hurt us badly. It might not be the only reason we are where we are, but he is not wrong.
Also, he is speaking to Worker’s share ownership conference. Context matters.
You can set YouTube to play at 2x speed, and that helps to get Cyril across quite effectively without spending too much time. Really nice story about negotiating in bad faith around the 26-minute mark.
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Under Mandela and then Mbeki, SA grew, especially under Mbeki.
Then Zuma happened, then Rama …
33 years under Apartheid if I recall, handing over a functioning SOE’s?
32+ years under ANC, with failed SOE’s?
Using Apartheid today is like beating a dead horse.
What he said was that excluding a large segment of the population from participating in the economy was bad for the growth of that economy. When people have an incentive (because they own part of it, or get some of the profit), they work harder, they care more, they steal less. We didn’t do that. He is not wrong.
Of course there was rapid recovery under Mandela and Mbeki, and of course there were huge losses under Zuma. That also remains true. I’m just a little sick of the false dichotomy, the either/or view, as if it cannot be both.
He didn’t even say the word Apartheid in that speech…
I just laughed … 8:40 onwards, he said "our economy was deliberately crippled, crippled and staggered, for a number of years by the exclusion of the majority of people and THAT IS WHY OUR ECONOMY IS WHERE IT IS TODAY … then he ranted on and on on how well all the laws and GOV made since.
But!! … you are right, he never uses the “word”.
32+ years after being elected, SA is crippled and staggered, but not as he describes it.
Any case.
I suppose mostly I dislike how this publication plays exactly on the sentiments of those who would prefer to deny past wrongdoing and focus more on present wrongdoing.
I don’t deny that in this speech, he makes a big deal about how government made things better (and we know they have not always done that), and he neglects to mention some of the very real ways they have made it worse. It is patently unfair to blame the previous regime for your own mistakes, regardless of how bad the mistakes of that regime was.
Still, I find it very hard to get worked up about this… because that is precisely what the publication wants me to do. And they can suck it.
Don’t throw the baby, bath, water, shampoo, and soap out … false dichotomy comes to mind. 
I said way back … in every article, there is a gem of truth … this case it seems they called it.
Recognising the fallacy of the false alternative/dichotomy is precisely about keeping both the baby and the bathwater. What irks me about the article, is it is precisely the thing that is discussed around the braaivleis fire with a heap of boepens uncles nodding to each other, ja nee swaer, dis alweer apartheid se skuld!
Stop feeding the trolls, for goodness sake 