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Power saving on track
Posted Fri, 09 May 2008
Power cuts in the winter months ahead are unlikely if the present saving trends continue, according to Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin.
The overall savings target remains 10 percent, and the key factor is the behavioural changes that are crucial in the short-term, he told a media briefing at parliament on Thursday.
Erwin said the reason Eskom was able to stop the scheduled load shedding was that "we're starting to see good performance on the savings".
"I think the working group with the top ten customers is really going well. The industrial customers have been hitting the ten percent target quite easily."
The introduction of energy efficient equipment would be very important, he said.
"So some of the work we're doing with the top 10 customers is to improve their metering processes to allow for various implements to be put in that can manage the energy load over time."
Also, the project to rapidly increase solar geyser usage was well advanced.
Erwin said if these objectives could be achieved, the savings habits maintained and the ten percent reduction in demand achieved, "we should have a reserve margin that will give us some comfort".
However, factors such as a bout of extremely cold weather or problems on transmission lines might bring in emergency load shedding.
"We need to warn people about that, but thus far, I must say, the commitment by stakeholders has been very good indeed."
Responding to suggestions that smelters, such as the proposed aluminium smelter at Coega, used "vast" amounts of electricity, created relatively few jobs, and had questionable benefits for the economy, Erwin said many assertions had been made.
But, it was a far more complex issue that had been asserted; that they did not have much impact on the economy.
"It has quite a considerable impact, from many different perspectives," he said.
The existing smelters "are giving us the savings we want from them and we are evaluating in some detail what the most effective option is for us to get the reserve margin we want".
"With the existing smelters, these are contracts. You don't just walk away from contracts. You have to engage around those and discuss it.
"But let me just stress. The smelters have given us savings. They are matching the savings we're getting from industry and that's an important factor," Erwin said.
He hoped the 16 May energy summit would reach some common understanding about meeting the need for an electricity price increase - which everyone acknowledged was necessary - but in a way that impacted "less on everybody".
The impact on poor households particularly, would be minimised as far as possible.
"So, we hope that on the 16th, with a broad grouping of people ... we will be able to reach some common approach to this. I think the dialogue's been going on well; we're hopeful," Erwin said.
Sapa
