By Dominique Herman
A multi-pronged power-saving campaign has been launched to prevent the feared rolling blackouts which could cripple the province until July.
Since Koeberg will be running on only one generating unit until the end of July, a shortfall of electricity is expected during peak periods - especially when winter sets in and electricity demand surges.
The campaign, launched by Eskom, the province and the City, aims to reduce peak demand in the Cape by as much as 400MW by the end of August, the amount of electricity consumed by half a million households.
According to Eskom general manager Andrew Etzinger, who is heading up the task team in the Cape Region, if that amount can be saved it will alleviate the need for the sort of load-shedding that was experienced province-wide for a two-week stretch in February and which cost the provincial economy billions of rand.
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"We cannot afford to be complacent. We need to fundamentally understand this moment," said Tasneem Essop, prov-incial minister for environment, planning and economic development.
The programme, soon to be catapulted into public awareness through an advertising blitz, will cost between R370-million and R450-million.
It has two primary goals, firstly to reduce electricity demand at peak periods (7-10am and 6-8pm) by shifting load to off-peak periods and secondly, to reduce consumption by incentivising the installation of energy-efficient equipment and practices.
For commerce and industry which, according to an Eskom case study, collectively consume 77 percent of South Africa's energy, financial compensation of R1.40 per kWh to cover fuel and maintenance costs will be offered to companies which run their own generators to supply a portion of their own load in peak times.
That would go a long way to freeing up the grid, Etzinger said.
The peak reduction target for commerce and industry is 50MW, equivalent to the energy consumption of 50 000 households.
Other financial incentives include subsidies on the purchase of energy-efficient appliances such as geyser blankets and solar water heating.
Immediate action on the part of government includes the distribution of five million energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) by the end of May.
Incandescent lamps will be swopped for CFLs in a door-to-door campaign in places like Khayelitsha, Table View, Mitchell's Plain, Atlantis and Blaauwberg.
In other areas, residents will be able to exchange these at yet-to-be-specified shops. The old lamps will be crushed.
Through a subsidy and trade-in scheme, 100 000 two-plate stoves and 30 000 electric hobs, heaters and ovens will be replaced with liquefied petroleum gas bottles and stoves by June 1.
The success of the power-saving strategy relied on a sustained and extensive conservation programme well beyond August, Essop said.
She added that with the water restriction campaign last year and the experience of power outages earlier this year, the Western Cape was well positioned to be a best practice site for the testing of renewable energy.
- This article was originally published on page 3 of Cape Times on April 05, 2006
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