Loadshedding: the pain and gain

And on Tuesday there was a double blow – they prepared for load-shedding at 8am by closing, only to be hit by the power cut at 10am.

“We turned customers away because you don’t want the power to go while you are in the middle of filling a car.”

NFB Insurance Brokers managing director Michelle Wolmarans said there was a “grey area” created by power surges.

“Most insurance policies will pay for power surge damage, as long as there is specific cover, matched with an event.”

The area of incremental damage is less clear. It is difficult to put an exact date on it, or to ascertain what is attributable to surges and what is simple wear and tear.

“Damage that has occurred over a period of time is normally excluded by insurers.” While Eskom’s latest load-shedding spree is crippling Eastern Cape butchers and bakers, the candlestick makers are smiling, as are generator and diesel stockists.

Boardman Brothers managing director Ricky Boardman said the candle-manufacturing division of his plant in Stutterheim had started to receive orders.

“The unusual demand is solely thanks to Eskom, as retailers clear stock quicker, and bump up orders.”

East London’s two leading generator suppliers – TKY and Thesen’s Generators – are out of stock of the most popular brands.

“There has been a tremendous demand, and I suppose our industry must be the only one not cursing Eskom,” said TKY owner Phil Puttergill.

The generator sales surge started in 2014 and continued through 2015, but then the lights came back on.

Now desperate customers, are inundating TKY and Thesen’s with pleas to fix machines that won’t fire up.

“People forget that generators have to be serviced. Our service crews are already flat out.

“A lot of households want smaller models. Businesses need larger machines, because they cannot afford to be without full power over December, their busiest period. Unfortunately, we can’t supply either big or small.

“Our national suppliers are also out of stock. The latest load-shedding saw them sold out in a day.”

Western Gruppe owns 29 SPAR and Tops! outlets across the province, each with a generator.

Director Nigel Connellan went through some of the costs involved.

“Each generator cost between R600,000 and R1m – and that’s the purchase price.

“On the larger generators we work on an average of 70 to 100 litres per hour.

“At R14 per litre, that gives an average cost in diesel alone of R1,250 per hour per generator.

“If load-shedding is only two hours per day, it costs R2,500 per day to run each generator.

“This excludes the costs of making sure the tanks are kept full and the generator is properly maintained.

John Johnson, a partner at Thesen’s, sold more than 100 smaller generators from its East London shop, mainly for household convenience.

“The demand goes right through to the larger machines for homes, up to 6,5KVA, which keeps homes and small businesses operating at the same rate as Eskom.”

Dual Generators deals only in larger custom-built machines for companies that cannot do without power, said owner David Townes.

“With the widely publicised predictions that Eskom will be forced into a five-year loadshedding pattern, companies that avoided buying in 2015, may rethink.”