Power cuts hit hard
2006-02-23
LOCAL businesses stand to lose hundreds of thousands of rands, while households can expect to be severely disrupted, if a concerted effort is not made to conserve electricity.
This warning was proved to everyone in the Western Cape during the past week’s devastating power-cuts, due to a shutdown of a reactor at Koeberg.
Local residents were greeted on Sunday morning by a gloom which was caused by the sudden power cut.
Although the public was warned last year about looming power failures due to various problems at Koeberg, few were actually equipped to deal with the situation.
The power was off for two to three hours in certain areas on Sunday, while reports were received from Wellington that some areas were without power for much longer.
During the next few days, the flow of electricity was rotated in two to three hourly periods.
This also affected the water supply in certain parts of Wellington, because water could not be pumped to reservoirs.
Many businesses were shocked to find the power-cuts continuing on Monday and Tuesday and the realisation started to sink in that this could be a taste of things to come.
Many businesses and shops lost hundreds of thousands of rands due to unproductivity during the cuts, as well as spoilage of fresh produce.
Local businesses which have power generators produce just enough power for basic running needs, and in many cases productivity slumps to below 50% per day.
The owner of Zomerlust Spar, Wilma Schneider, said that her business had suffered severe losses due to a decline in trade.
“People are turned off by the idea of shopping in a dark building and they only go out for basic necessities.
“This is also a time when shop-lifting is rife, as the dark shops are easy targets for thieves.”
They were one of many shops which tried to keep their doors open to the public by using candles and gas lanterns to illuminate the interior.
Fast food restaurants and smaller stores were forced to close their doors entirely at these times.
At the Wellington magistrate’s court it was business as usual. Court cases were conducted with the help of candlelight, and an employee said that they would continue serving the public to their fullest potential.
Paarl Hospital has a large generator to see to their basic needs, but had to cancel all surgery except emergency operations in these conditions.
The Daljosafat traffic test centre shut down entirely because their computer systems could not operate.
This meant that no bookings for driving tests could be made and licences and road-worthy certificates could not be issued.
Many businesses, including the fire department in Paarl were hampered by closed switchboards. Most of their manpower was engaged in answering mostly irate calls during the week.
The agricultural sector was dealt a devastating blow, due to the fact that most farms are in the middle of harvesting or wine production.
Cooling facilities, irrigation systems and sorting machines shut down.
The cellar-master of Nederburg, Razvan Macici, said that they were only able to process half the amount of grapes normally processed.
“We have a small generator which is mainly used to control the temperature during the fermentation process of the wine.
Temperature is crucial at this stage and our product can easily be damaged at this stage.”
Many smaller estates have to battle without this commodity.
A few businesses did however benefit from the power failures.
Shaun Fouché, who runs an equipment rental business, said that he could not keep up with the demand for generators while shops ran out of candles, torches and batteries.
Drakenstein municipal account payments will now only be due on 15 March, because accounts could not be finalised on time.
The rotating load shedding is expected to continue until at least
Saturday, but similar situations can be expected in the near future until both reactors at Koeberg have been fully repaired.
In a statement, Eskom said that if consumers were not able to conserve 35% of electricity, more cuts will be in the pipeline.
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