Energy News – Regional Electricity Distributors should be scrapped

DA minerals and energy spokesperson Hendrik Schmidt issued a statement last Tuesday reiterating the DA’s call that Regional Electricity Distributers (REDs) should be scrapped. You might recall a previous video post about why RED 1 failed.

Similar problems again surfaced during a electricity distribution maintenance summit last week. South African Local Government Association revealed an estimated R25 billion maintenance backlog, largely due to the uncertainty around the establishment of the REDs.

Said Schmidt, “Billions in maintenance backlogs is yet another reason why REDs must be done away with. It is evident that urgent maintenance in distribution networks is needed before the whole electricity sector collapses.”

He added that the Democratic Alliance had advocated the introduction of a well-defined Distribution Charter, which would spell out the full functions and standards expected of electricity service providers.

“In addition to this, greater authority must be placed with the electricity regulator to both monitor and enforce compliance with the Distribution Charter,” Schmidt concluded.

Load shedding news – End electricity theft to relieve burden on citizens

Curbing electricity theft would greatly ease pressure on the national grid, said the Democratic Alliance last Thursday.

“The amount of electricity that Eskom loses to illegal connections and other forms of theft equates to almost 10 percent of national demand,” said DA public enterprises spokesman Manie van Dyk. “This is the very same margin by which the electricity utility is asking the public to reduce its consumption”.

Van Dyk said a report showed that losses incurred through electricity theft and non-payment amounted to 3,690 MW.

“This exceeds Eskom’s goal of a permanent peak hour saving of 3,000 MW.”

Why RED 1 Failed

In a follow-up question at last week’s press conference, a journalist asked about the failure of RED 1 (the first Regional Electricity Distribution agency) in Cape Town, and what the DA’s views were about restructuring the distribution of electricity. This is what DA minerals and energy spokesperson Hendrik Schmidt had to say:

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Videocast – DA Press conference on Eskom Restructuring

The Democratic Alliance on Monday released a discussion document on Electricity Sector Reform – expanding on one of the longer-term proposals in our previous document proposing solutions to the energy crisis.

Below is a video excerpt of Hendrik Schmidt’s press conference, in which he sums up the key points of the document:

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The lighter side – bottled electricity

We received a powerpoint presentation this week with the following picture as the last slide:

How’s that for an energy alternative? 🙂

We need to end Eskom’s monopoly over electricity supply

Eskom’s monopoly over electricity supply is one of the main causes of South Africa’s electricity crisis. The permanent solution to our energy future lies in dismantling this monopoly. Until independent power producers (IPPs) are allowed to enter the market to expand and diversify the sources of power we have access to, and until we are relieved of the burden of having to rely on Eskom’s outdated and dilapidated processes and infrastructure, local demand for electricity will continue to exceed supply.

The Democratic Alliance will, in the coming Parliamentary session, pursue all available policy and legislative avenues to dismantle Eskom’s monopoly as the sole purchaser of electricity in South Africa. This move would see IPPs either being able to feed into the national grid, or to feed power directly to consumers, thereby reducing pressure on Eskom’s generation capacity.