Maybe they should spend more time and money looking at why they don't have enough coal supplies. Just a thought.

SA people already spent too much time and efforts to spy the neighberhood because of crime situation. Now fat ESKOM bosses want us to do more because they couldn't to supply something we were paying. Just stop the power stealing in locations and cut the supply immediately for those outstanding goverment account holders. You will find the problem will be eased.

What is to be considered waistfull use of electricity? If I switch on my oudoor lights for safety would that be considered wastefull? If we use the stve oven for baking ,is that wasteful? If i run a ceiling fan is the unbearable heat is that wastefull? If i use a stanby generating set to relieve the inconvience of power outages is that wrong blowing more gases into the atmosphere?

Now even spying? Reading through the articles that appeared today I noticed that Eskom has only electrified 49% of their target of unelectrified areas in the past year. How can expansion of the grid even be considered when they already can't supply the demand? Similar concerns hold for the municipalities. So people who have all along payed for electricity must now be rationed so that others can get electricity (and be rationed anyway)? In the end we'll have a total electrified country without anybody allowed to use it? A further thought: as electricity use increased, especially recently, surely Eskom's and the municipalities' income increased as well? But no expansion was undertaken. That the current situation would happen with no expansion has been clear for many years, even to people in the street not in any way associated to the industry, so why wasn't corrective action taken in time? The obvious thing would have been to use the money allocated to grid expansion for capacity expansion, once the capacity was there, grid expansion could have been continued. Capacity expansion would also have provided income for more effective grid expansion (more electricity being SOLD). Whatever happened to project management? On the part of the Government, The Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs and Eskom? At least Eskom is now rehiring retired (and retrenched?) engineers to help fix the problem, but probably too little too late.

So they want to install 200000 ripple control devices at a cost of R1350 each. This implies a total cost of R270 million. Now, take R270 million, use it to subsidize interest free loans for installing solar water heating. Make the loan payable over 5 years (or an estimated period for which the cost saving in electricity will be the same as the cost of installing the solar water heating unit) and you will have a long term, energy saving option. There are so many (user friendly) solutions out there, sadly no ability to THINK of them by ESKOM and RSA policy makers.

"In some instances businesses may be operating from backyards or some people may be recklessly using hosepipes." - operations manager Sihle Cele. What do hosepipes and electricity usage have in common? Once again, an Eskom representative spouts utter gibberish in an attempt to cover up his (Eskom's) negligence and incompetence!

This is serious nonsense! If we buy pre-paid electricity we should be able to use it according to our wishes. If there's a fuel shortage.. should my neighbour report me for driving a V8 powered car that I paid for? Eskom is pointing to the problem.. not the solution.

CFL bulbs (compact flourescent) have received a lot of media attention, and have become a popular way of reducing costs, electricity consumption and carbon footprint.They generally claim to use 20% of the energy (although strangely some manufactures quote this figure as 25%) as compared to filament bulbs, to last longer and are also available in 12V DC versions, seemingly ideal for wind and solar battery systems. However, there are some disturbing facts about CFLs that are less generally known. DIMMERS :- Most locally available CFL bulbs cannot be used with dimmers. Well... they can be used, but the dimming function will not work, and the bulbs will last for a far shorter time than advertised, even if the dimmer is kept on the brightest setting. The warranty on these bulbs is also voided when connected to a dimmer. Filament bulbs are often dimmed when less light is required, which reduces the electricity used. MECURY :- CFLs contain mercury (about 5mg), which is highly toxic and classified as a hazardous substance. It damages the central nervous system as well as other organs, and leads to acrodynia in children. Some claim it is a cause of autism. Since CFLs can explode when they fail, they can result in mercury being spread in the living area as a vapour (note that this vapour is far more dangerous than liquid mercury found in thermometers). CFL manufacturers (at least the more responsible ones) recommend wearing vinyl gloves when cleaning up broken CFL bulbs, as well as several other precautions. In addition, when bulbs are discarded, they generally end up in municipal landfills, which results in the mercury contaminating the local ground water. HEAT :- CFLs still waste energy by producing heat, although less than filament bulbs. About 30% of electricty used by a CFL is converted into heat (as opposed to light), compared to about 90% for filament bulbs. Most of the heat is produced by the electronic circuit concealed in the base of the CFL. Unlike filament bulbs, this circuit is sensitive to heat (it is more likely to fail at higher temperatures) and so CFLs are not suitable for unventilated fittings (such a glass 'fish bowl' fittings). CARBON FOOTPRINT :- This term refers to the amount of carbon dioxide produced by using something. For a CFL, the amount of electcity saved reduces the carbon footprint. However, the manufacturing process is considerbly more complex than for a filament bulb, and this should be taken into account when considering carbon dioxide production. This becomes particularly relavant when CFLs are used in environments which reduce their lifetime. TIMER / LIGHT SENSING SWITCHES :- As above, most CFL bulbs will have their lifetime considerably shortened when used with automatic light switches. FREQUENT ON/OFF :- CFLs take about 3 minutes to begin operating efficiently. Energy wise, it is not worth turning a CFL off for less than about 15 minutes before it is turned on again. VIBRATION & LIFETIME :- Some fittings such as those incorporating a ceiling fan are subject to vibration, and CFL manufacturers do not recommend using their bulbs in such locations. The vibration can casue the electronics in the bulb base to fail. Manufacturers claim CFLs last significantly longer than filament bulbs. However, there is mounting anecdotal evidence that CFLs do not last as long as advertised. This may be due to differences between 'real life' use and test laboratory conditions - for example expected lieftime ratings of CFL rarely mention how frequently the bulb is turned on and off, and at what temperature they are run while under test. Also, CFLs can become dimmer with age, which can result in them being discarded before they actually 'fail'. ESKOM BULBS :- Recently Eskom offered free CFL bulbs in exchange for working filament bulbs. No effort was made to inform people receiving the CFL bulbs about the above issues. The 'Eskom' bulbs also have no manufacturer name or address on them, and most likely came from China, which does not have a good reputation for quality or manangement of hazardous substances in exported goods. from windpower.org.za

Typical South African kragdadigheid. Blame the victim stuff. Can some one please spy on Eskom. They lie or conceal the truth about themselves the whole time. .

Its our right to use electricity the way we want to use it no one has a right to tell us how to use electricity we are buying this electricity for hevean's sake why should we buy electricity if we not going to use it. This is not our problem Eskom needs to solve this problem.Do you know how much we are loosing because of this crisis going on. Eskom knew about this long time ago but they ddint do anything about it. i will use electricity the way i want to, no one is going say anything. i can leave the lights on day & night if i want.ESKOM YOU NEED TO SORT OUT YOUR PROBLEMS.