Photo: Envato Elements
Photo: Envato Elements
Whether you’re reading this by candlelight, or on the soft glimmer of a phone screen that’s about to run out of battery, you’ll be fully aware that Eskom have put load shedding back on the menu for South Africans this week. Thursday marks the second day of Stage 2 power cuts, which come into force at 9:00 and will last until 23:00.
What’s gone wrong, we hear you ask? Well, pretty much everything from multiple boiler leaks to broken conveyor belts. The new build at Medupi is causing problems, as Eskom’s private diesel and water levels have started running low. The blackouts have the potential to last through the weekend.
But load shedding doesn’t have to be all-consuming. Yes, having our electricity supply majorly disrupted is nothing short of a bummer. But there are ways to limit the effects, and avoid some of the more frustrating elements of our grid going offline. We’ve got the best suggestions here…
Cape Town and its residents were the least-affected metro-dwellers in the country on Wednesday. That’s because they’ve boosted their local grid with the Steenbras Hydroelectric Dam.
City-supplied residents and businesses experienced Stage 1 load-shedding, instead of the countrywide impact of Stage 2. This means they had less frequent and shorter periods without power. While that may be great for the first few days, an extended period of blackouts would eventually see the City forced to comply with Eskom’s recommendations.
Investing in your own generators and solar panels might set you back in terms of cash, but if you cannot function without electricity, these are two of your best options. These features are able to supply homes with their own energy supply, essentially taking an individual off of Eskom’s grid – therefore, you would avoid any implementation of load shedding.
We’ve got a few tips and tricks you can follow to ensure that load shedding does very little to disrupt your day. You might want to wait until payday to go on this anti-Eskom shopping spree, though: