Speaking to the Mail & Guardian, he said the National Energy Crisis Committee’s demand-side energy saving management strategies include encouraging 200 000 households to switch to solar geysers — coupled with the installation of smart meters — to reduce one stage of load-shedding.
“The changing of meters will be free for the communities at the beginning stage, but consumers will have to pay it through tariff increases that will be increased next year. Eskom chief engineer Edison Makwarela, expanding on the smart meter plan, said the average power demand from geysers accounts for about 10% of Eskom’s power capacity, reaching as high as 35% during daily peak periods. By remotely monitoring and controlling geysers, he said Eskom can identify and address “excessive” energy usage, ultimately alleviating load-shedding.with industrial users.
The project is set to run from July until September or until “the threshold of 50 megawatts has been reached,” the utility said. Adriaan Davidse, a director at consulting service Deloitte, warned that with the installation of the smart meters an algorithm must be written so that changes are introduced gradually countrywide to “prevent sudden mass switch-offs or switch-ons that will be detrimental to grid stability”.
Eskom generation head Bheki Nxumalo explained that a generation operational recovery programme is being implemented to recover the performance of these plants to improve the current electricity availability factor of 60% to 65% by March 2024 and 75% by March 2025.