Switching on to pulling together

IT’S IN tough times that people pull together, and our business community is planning to do just that.

The Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business and the Msunduzi Municipality believe that if we all come together as a business community to give capacity, then we can avoid Stage 1 and Stage 2 load-shedding altogether.

Giving capacity means switching off non-essential equipment that draws large amounts of electricity, like airconditioners and kettles. It’s far better for us to stop using certain electrical equipment for a while, than to be totally load-shed. At least this way, we can keep the lights and computers on, stay productive and shield our grid from further damage.

The constant load-shedding is not only causing direct damage to the economy, the constant switching on and off is also damaging our electricity network. The resultant outages are exacerbating the negative impact of load-shedding.

Seventy percent of Pietermaritzburg’s electricity consumption is business related, and so we are calling on all businesses to take matters into their own hands and to play their part so we can avoid load-shedding. It’s essentially up to us. This is how it will work. We plan to run a trial this Friday, between 9am and noon, to ascertain whether we can give sufficient capacity to meet the Stage 2 requirement.

All businesses in the city are to switch off non-essential equipment and factories will ramp down their draw by 15%.

All the major factories have indicated their willingness to participate and there has been a very positive response from the commercial sector.

If the public sector and schools come to the party, then we should be in business, so to speak.

Organisations that participate in the trial on Friday have been requested to let us know what measures they instituted during the trial by emailing pcb@pcb.org.za, because the chamber plans to acknowledge all of those who play their part.

Each company is to include the cellphone contact details of their “Curtailment Champion” (the person who will ensure that equipment is switched off when Eskom calls for loadshedding in the future) so the chamber can put a bulk SMS system in place.

If any community can do it, we can, and we’re holding thumbs for a positive outcome.