The road to hell is lined with good intentions……
Groetnis
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At last!!!
From what I gathered, they did not want to do that, and I read between the lines, that it was not Eskoms decision, but the shareholders’ decision, “keep the lights on at all costs” to avert reminding the voters every single day, no dirty laundry hanging around for everyone to see.
This is a real gem: Medupi…
In June 2022, after touting the profitability for years, the African Development Bank conceded that the plant “will not show a financial benefit over its lifetime”. They cite that with an intended load factor of 90%, the project has only seen a 70% load factor.[24]
Groetnis
An analogy that jumped to mind … avalanches start with something small, triggering the mountain to come sliding down “suddenly”.
We just went through some severe LS, a possible huge “trigger”?
Now African Development Bank conceding miraculously another real bugger re. Medupe, after De Ruyter said “we can fix it for billions more, or scrap it”.
Seems like more and more tiny tectonic shifts are happening, little slips (triggers), from sources that are doing a 180 as in “All is fine … aah, we seem to have this “new info” … uhm, it is really not fine.” 
“Feels” like the ANC stranglehold is slipping one report after another as the rats are jumping off the HMS ANC.
Maybe the coming elections are the “final straw/avalanche” … ?
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Don’t think this is planned. De Ruyter, or someone else, would have screamed blue murder.
LS 4 I see, so soon?
We were Level 2-6, for weeks, then it got better for what, a week? Now again more breakages, definitely not unexpected.
We all know patching gets you so far, then it becomes a very very dangerous situation, especially with extremely complex systems like say very old EOL power stations running 24/7/365, at least trying to, at their max possible capacity.
Would we see the EOL as in station/s becoming totally unrepairable and switched off?
Or worse, an EOL catastrophic failure caused by human error or just EOL catastrophic station failure?
Or maybe I read too much, the imagination getting to fertile. 
See, that is what I was referring to, planned decommissioning 
You guys just prefer to call it summing else 
Groetnis
Groetnis
It certainly was planned, when the plant was designed… It’s just happening now 
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Again, I know car analogies are very much a guy thing, but they work so well. We all know that sometimes, after fixing the most important things, the car works quite well for a few days until the next big thing breaks. Anyone who thought that load-shedding was over (including the idiots who think it is fake and just a way to coerce rate increases) was simply wrong. We will be on the edge for many more months, and I suspect we will have more days with some level of load-shedding than days with no load-shedding. What I am saying is, the times when nobody’s power is off at all… that’s going to be less than half the time.
“Panned decommission” or “catastrophic failure” … the end result is the same, and we don’t have new generation in place, or even close.
Months … naaa, more like years for it all to come online, become tried and tested.
I always think about Tesla and Australia’s trials and tribulations.
Seems it is now sorted, ±2 years on, excl installation, begins to …
At least there is a possible working solution, copy/paste for SA?
Na, no copy paste here. Elon is not welcome, also no Starlink, so it goes… BYD and them China systems are however, I had a post elsewhere on here regarding those.
Groetnis
The problems with the Hornsdale Power Reserve, reading between the lines were completely manufactured by management. I think they were trying to play the market in order to maximize tariffs for themself.
In any event, the plant paid for itself even before that article was published, 2.5 years after commissioning.
https://www.torquenews.com/video/tesla-big-battery-australia-pays-itself-25-years-huge-profit
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I agree on the sentiment regarding Elon, but I think there is another reason our government would definitely go with China instead… The same reason that got us into all of this trouble.
Not wanting to bad-mouth anyone, but my understanding is that as much as we’d like to claim Mr. Musk as “South African”, he might not share the sentiment. He was relentlessly bullied at school. As someone who has had my share of that, I have often quipped that I am not yet ready for a reunion (20 years later), so the same is probably true here. Then he also left at 17, so he’s spent more time in Canada and America than he ever did here. This is merely where he was born…
So much as Elon might not be “welcome” here… I don’t think he really cares about the peanut gallery who holds that sentiment. That idea that the world somehow owes us something (like when the Queen died and suddenly the diamonds had to be returned… like it won’t be immediately stolen once it gets back of course).
Re starlink… best info I can find is that they have not even applied for a license yet. Odds are they won’t get it (seeing as they have a genetic condition that causes less melanin to be present in the dermis), but what’s really going on is a bit of a mystery.
No matter who claims what, the people in power does not like him. He registered a starlink Pty locally, and the CancER made the message clear, we own majority or you get nothing. So stalemate I guess. No plans for Tesla either. That will include the Utility scale power packs.
My address Gauteng, RSA
Order now to reserve your Starlink. Service date is unknown at this time. Availability is subject to regulatory approval. Within each coverage area, orders are fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis.
DEPOSIT DUE TODAY
US$99.00
Groetnis
I’m in full agreement that when you cannot have nice things, because other people have a disagreeable agenda, then it is infuriating.
Of course we all have some sort of agenda. I do too. I want to make enough money so that I can stop working… eventually. That’s my agenda. I mean in the usual pejorative sense.
Also, this is very funny.
Ouch …
30% of Ukraine’s power stations destroyed
Russian drone and missile attacks this month have destroyed almost a full third of the country’s power stations. The destruction has triggered blackouts across the country, but the grid has remained relatively stable, showing that even Ukraine in a literal war with a superpower can still have better power scheduling than South Africa.
People in South Africa complaining about an “unstable grid”. Pfffft. Our grid is not unstable. It is a tad unreliable, sure (in the sense that you cannot necessarily depend on the power being available), but it is far from unstable.
Of course local experiences will differ. If you are on an overloaded transformer in a poorly managed metro, then of course it is going to be both unstable and unreliable.
Don’t bring your Cape town view here … there are some people suffering everywhere in SA.