Eskom finds itself in tricky situation

It seems South Africans have accepted there will be no end to load shedding anytime soon, despite the barrage of promises made by politicians to end the power crisis.

Those able to afford alternative power supply for households and businesses – and there’s more people than we think – have dug deep into their pockets and shelled out large sums of money to avoid blackouts as best as they can. According to Eskom data, the installed rooftop photovoltaic (PV) solar on commercial and residential buildings doubled in the past year – up by 108% from the 2.4GWp (gigawatt peak) level a year before to 5.04GWp.

As more and more people move, or partially move away from the grid, Eskom finds itself in a tricky situation as it tries to stay afloat.

Tshepo Kgadima, an independent economic and energy analyst, said Eskom went from selling 193 terawatt hours to 160 terawatt hours – a loss of over R70 billion – in the past financial year. What’s worse, he added, is that “anything less than that for the next financial year would leave it bankrupt as increasing tariffs and rolling blackouts were accelerating the migration”.

Kgadima said: “However, whether there is load shedding or not, people will still have to use those batteries and draw power from the batteries which they have charged during the day using solar. So it means that demand for Eskom will continue to go lower and lower and Eskom will lose revenue of close to R80 billion. Secondly, the tariffs, the equilibrium has been breached… It now costs less to go off grid as a household than to stay on. The tariff is R2.18 as approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.”

Sadly, the increase of rooftop solar installations just highlights the gulf between the haves and have-nots. Those with money will find a way to combat the power crisis. Those struggling will just have to grin and bear it as Eskom stumbles from one failure to another.