Cape Town - Load shedding is not just the switching off of electricity at the national grid, but the impact can be disastrous as was seen when two generators exploded outside Pick n Pay at Somerset West Mall.
Tamra Veley, spokesperson for Pick n Pay, said two generators outside the store’s receiving area at the Somerset West Mall caught fire and the firefighters on scene doused the blaze within an hour.
Six fire-fighting appliances, including a specialised vehicle, were on scene with 25 staff, who doused the fire before midnight on Wednesday.
Veley said the cause of the fire was being investigated.
Somerset Mall marketing manager Mel Jeffries said the fire was isolated to the supermarket’s external delivery yard and there was no damage to the building, and it was business as usual at Somerset Mall.
While load shedding was suspected of triggering a number of fires over the past few months, City Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said there was still no conclusive evidence it was the cause. “We cannot speculate about the cause of the fire.”
Independent energy expert Hilton Trollip said load shedding had changed from sporadic incidents to almost constant and the biggest impact was that many businesses had to buy alternative power supplies on an urgent basis.
Trollip said this created a shortage of stocks of back-up power supplies such as batteries, inverters and generators, with resulting increased prices and a shortfall of qualified people to install these.
“I have experienced this directly, there is a huge pressure on the installation and supply industry. Regarding actual load shedding, well-installed inverters and batteries in general do not get impacted by load shedding but what it does, is makes them used far more often and for longer periods of time.
“What happens when load shedding lasts for many hours is that batteries run down, and control circuits switch them off. People are only starting to get used to operating these systems and often they can’t get them to work properly.
“Also, with all equipment, if it gets used a lot, it wears out a lot faster. Batteries for example have a limited number of charge/re-charge cycles. The cheaper batteries can get damaged if they are run down to far.“
Jacques Moolman, president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said larger businesses typically had the means to invest in back-up power such as generators and batteries.
But even when systems were sometimes insufficient to prevent any impact from load shedding, some large industrial processes required grid supply.
“In our recent business survey, load shedding and energy supply was identified as a key priority area requiring attention. Suggestions from members included exempting industrial areas from the normal load shedding schedule,” Moolman said.