The damage to small enterprises devastating

Load shedding by the stateowned power utility Eskom has been devastating to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), said Jeremy Lang, regional general manager at Business Partners Limited.

Eskom unexpectedly began rolling out power cuts this week, taking load shedding to an unprecedented stage four at some point, after saying that it had lost at least six power generating units.

Stage four loadshedding means that up to 4 000 megawatt of the national grid is shed, cutting off power supply for at least four hours in Johannesburg areas. It has been reported that load shedding in South Africa at stage two would cost the productive economy about R2 billion a day.

Lang said in order for SME owners to limit this impact, they need to know exactly how the lack of consistent energy supply is affecting their businesses.

“For example, some businesses can accommodate producing goods and services around the load shedding schedules; however, other businesses may rely on passing trade at a specific time of the day. If this is the case, then load shedding can be detrimental,” he said.

Lang said the industries most affected by load shedding were manufacturing, retail, hospitality and, in particular, businesses that are using cold storage and refrigeration. He said load shedding also has a severe impact on a business’ productivity.

“This is because over and above the potential loss of stock, the constant switching on and off can also damage the equipment, which can become extremely costly to repair or replace.

“As electricity is generally cut for about two to four hours, SMEs could lose up to four of an eight-hour working day, which can also impact employees who are paid by the hour.”

African News Agency (ANA) saw during the week how load shedding affected businesses such as restaurants, retail and grocery shops at shopping malls in Johannesburg during the week.

The impact of power cuts also hit institutions of higher learning, leaving students unable to learn as classrooms were engulfed in darkness.

Lang said because of the uncertainty that the unreliable energy supply causes, small businesses may not invest in growing their business at this time, which will, in turn, restrict the growth of the economy.

He said the best option was to consider investing in backup electricity supplies, such as generators or uninterruptible power source (UPS) systems.