Mmmm…
I see some Loadshedding on the way 
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The Minister of Energy has consistently said that loadshedding is suspended, not over and done with (and I doubt there is any utility anywhere that will guarantee you as much power as you need, 100% of the time). Indeed he has predicted that the coming winter will be a difficult time for Eskom.
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Eskom se Push, moments ago, Weekend LS risk. 
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Poor guys, they must have ran out of diesel.
Eskom’s biggest immediate problem is non-payment. Big metros are now in arrears and the total amount owed would, if recovered, substantially change what Eskom can budget for.
Here in Johannesburg it is likely that they are in arrears because they are underecovering because of bridged meters, or just flat out illegal connections. A whole shopping mall was disconnected for non-payment.
I think that is what they mean by replenishing the reserves. They burn Diesel faster than it can be trucked in, so it makes them fall behind and in order to keep black start capability and readiness for emergencies, they have to shed load until they can get the tank levels back up. So yes… running out of Diesel, but more in a local manner.
Would be interesting to know what the overall budget looks like. Financial year starts in April, and it is January. So quite far in already…
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Another speculation …
Because the 36% was turned down, they don’t have the “budget” going forward to keep on burning diesel today, hence the potential looming LS.
Time to post this again…
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Its just strange, its not the first time they announce loadshedding within a few days after their demands for huge price increases have been denied.
They have burned the emergency diesel reserves, behind with payments, did not get the increase they hoped for, cant order new diesel fast enough without the 36% increase being added to their budget… or its a case of throwing their toys because they did not get what they want. (Reminding us what its like to live with load-shedding)
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And it has started, notification after notification of clients systems disconnecting from the grid. First notifications from the Cape.
Why do they always have to be first?
We’re quite progressive, don’t you know? 
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I know…it is MBB…but…
That now begs the question…was all this bleating about the 300 days of no loadshedding just lipstick on the pig?
…and the hubris that we will get our 36%? etc…
Then I have to ask, has anything really changed…all the ‘good news’ just smoke & mirrors?
With the debts it has, because municipalities are not paying, it’s very hard for Eskom to make a profit. I’m sure those figures are right, but they are not the whole story.
My thoughts …
- Eskom needed the increase to continue buying diesel, spend more on maintenance. No increase, they ran out of “juice”.
- The 300 days of no LS. I’m not convinced it is not political driven. Gov knows the populace is deeply gatvol. So whatever it take people, no LS. And if you LS somewhere, then you call it something else.
I cannot figure the:
- maintenance that De Ruyter begged for, that miraculously started when he left the building.
- that maintenance making such a huge impact on the fleet. Some repairs/maintenance takes months, years …
- the near “overnight” curbing of the “gravy train expenses” in Eskom.
- the Gov “ignoring” the immense debt owed by Eksom from mismanaged Munic’s.
Something feels off …
Maybe I’m wrong, and it all is legit. My bad.
But if I’m not …
But weren’t there reports showing that Eskom had substantially cut their diesel consumption? Has that increased in the last few months, I rember checking just before the elections when the theory was that they were running the OCGTs night and day to try to look good before the elections, but the data showed that they weren’t. Since then I haven’t been paying much attention.
Well I don’t know what they are to do here. They could, for example, turn Durban off. But is that going to create more problems than it solves?
And that punishes residents rather than the City, and many residents will have been dutifully paying their bill each month.
A hard fact to consider, the residents voted in the parties in charge.
The parties in charge are not paying Eskom.
The GNU needs to make a call, and it will cause drama.
Yes, but since Des, I think there was a increase again, especially in Jan 2025, I think.
Yes, they did say more things broke, but we all know, some old things, cannot be maintained/repaired. It will break again. Don’t then brag about 300 days LS free, as it is but a temporary situation. You have been lucky, have not fixed the core.
Not complaining, just mentioning. I did not sleep more than 5 hours since waking up Friday morning. With hundreds of installations country wide, try to imagine how many things can be forgotten in a 10 month no load shedding period.
Systems were all set to use maximum from the batteries at night, and now there is loadshedding at 2 or 4 in the morning and the remaining stored energy only last an hour and then total darkness. But dont fear, we have Jaco’s number, he will know the answer, lets phone hime.
A minute part of my customers are tinkerers like us and as long as the system works, they are fine. We make it our priority to understand our systems, most clients dont. I dont blame them, they bought a product and it should work. Because of battery prices, 90 plus % of my clients dont have the capacity to run offgrid, and if not managed, the changes of running out of backup capacity is huge.
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Yeah, that is one of my bugbears over the decades.
You teach, they forget.
You write manuals, they are lost.
They have a phone number, it is always used.
I then explain to my clients, non-solar, imagine you had the same view over your vehicles fuel gauge. You drive and drive then call me when you run out of fuel … you HAVE some responsibility, not so!?
Tant San, there in Garries who is 88 today, even she gets it.
Then I make this suggestion:
I can take over that responsibility for you … R1000pm + VAT. Deal?
Then one sees how quickly people listen very attentively. 
The client is not the king. Not always right.
Together we are better.
… unless the client pays “top-dollar” for that service … free does not put food on the table.
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