Councils battle to keep the lights on
Economic hubs in the province are under pressure to come up with alternative power plans to save the economy and attract investors
WHILE the ethekwini Municipality has clarified that nuclear power is not part of its alternative source of energy, it has also not disclosed its immediate plans to address the load shedding that has been crippling businesses and frustrating ratepayers.
Eskom this week implemented stage 5 and 6 load shedding, the worst that the country has seen.
Municipalities such as ethekwini and Msunduzi, in Pietermaritzburg, which are the economic hubs of the province, have previously proposed alternative plans for power to safeguard the economy.
In June last year, ethekwini Municipality’s spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela, said the ethekwini council had adopted an energy transition policy for the ethekwini municipal area following a robust stakeholder engagement process.
However, he said that the policy did not have nuclear power anywhere in its implementation pipeline.
Mayisela said they thought it was necessary to clarify the issue of nuclear power after rumours had spread amid load shedding.
Asked to elaborate about other alternative plans, Mayisela said ethekwini had made proposals, for other sources of energy, which would be presented before the next executive committee meeting.
“To avoid confusion to the public, the municipality has taken a decision not to discuss the alternative power plan at this stage until the matter has been discussed and approved by the council. The matter will be part of the agenda at the next council meeting which will then be discussed with other stakeholders,” he said.
The business community in Pietermaritzburg and Durban has been working with the council to find ways to minimise the impact of load shedding.
Melanie Veness, CEO of the Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Business, said they had been working with the Msunduzi Municipality to minimise the economic devastation that the intermittent power cuts could bring.
Veness said industrialists who employed large numbers of people were heavily affected and job losses were inevitable if load shedding persisted.
“Industrialists are horrendously impacted, it’s devastating. You can’t ramp factories up and down every few hours. Some factories take eight hours to ramp up, so they may as well just close when there’s stage 5 or 6,” she said.
“The difficult thing for the Pietermaritzburg industry is that it is embedded in the network.”
“It is difficult to try to spare industry the ravages of load shedding.
Veness said bigger centres with designated industrial areas, their industry’s competitors, were spared the worst of the load shedding as their municipalities protected them and secured the jobs of those they employed.
“Our companies are losing contracts because we can’t deliver when they can. I don’t know how, but we need to make a plan to help our industry, otherwise they will look to relocate to compete and survive,” she said.
Veness said that most small businesses did not have generators, so could not function during load shedding.
“It’s extremely disruptive when it’s happening every couple of hours and many of these businesses are still struggling to recover from the impact of Covid and the July riots,” she said.
“We’re trying to win a huge battle with our hands tied behind our backs. It is unreasonable.
“Far more established economies are struggling to reboot post-covid-19. How on earth can we expect to do that post-covid-19 and the July riots with a chronically disrupted power supply?” Veness said.
Nontobeko Mkhize, Msunduzi’s spokesperson, said that although load shedding was badly affecting business and residents, it was intended to protect the grid in line with Eskom requests. She encouraged residents to use electricity sparingly.
“The schedule responds to Eskom requests in terms of the stages to be implemented at any given point,” she said.
“Electric surges may occur when power is restored and residents are encouraged to keep their appliances switched off during load shedding to minimise the impact of overloading at the time of restoration.”