Escalation of load-shedding protocols is an admission that the electricity crisis could get worse
8 May 2023
News last week of the finalisation of protocols dealing with Stage 9 load-shedding and beyond is nothing short of horrifying as South Africans struggle to cope with the 8 – 10 hours of blackouts a day imposed by the current Stage 6.
Stage 8 would see at least 12 hours a day without power in blocks of 4 hours and Stage 9 even worse. In addition, a move beyond Stage 8 would herald not only load-shedding, but electricity curtailment. This would require large energy users to further reduce their power usage. The negative impact on industry would be extreme, with a disastrous affect on jobs and the economy.
Four-hour blocks of load-shedding reduce the ability of Municipalities to provide water to residents as there is insufficient time for them to refill reservoirs when there is power. Cellphone towers begin to lose the ability to transmit signal after 3 hours, leaving rural towns and villages without communications during the 4 hour stretches. Smaller food retailers do not have the capacity to keep meat and other products cold for extended periods and there is a very real risk of contamination and food poisoning. Small businesses like hairdressers, printing shops, bakeries and seamstresses are unable to operate for hours on end without power, severely restricting their ability to generate an income and keep their businesses sustainable. Most cannot afford a generator or the fuel to run one.
The National Rationalisation Specifications (NRS) association, which is the body responsible for drafting the load-shedding protocols, has consulted extensively and estimates that they will submit the new schedule to the National Energy Regulator (NERSA) shortly. The purpose of these protocols is to ensure that all entities involved in the distribution and supply of electricity follow the same rules and procedures in the operationalising of load-shedding, in order to prevent a total grid collapse.