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Eskom on Friday announced the beginning of a pilot project that will give consumers more control over load shedding by using smart meters.
The utility said selected consumers in Fourways in Gauteng will during Stage 1-4 load shedding get four opportunities to reduce their load from 60/80 Amps to 10 Amps by switching off some appliances.
They will be notified through the interface of their smart meters and cellphones an hour before load shedding starts. This will allow them to keep essential appliances on, but if they don’t respond, the supply to the whole property will be switched off for the duration of load shedding.
The success of this pilot will inform the countrywide roll-out of its demand management programme, says Eskom.
The use of the system, especially on geysers, can be very beneficial, says Dr Adriaan Davidse, a South African living in Canada and director at consulting service Deloitte.
He cautions against reverting to the established way of thinking to solve the electricity crisis rather than positioning the country for a rapidly changing electricity supply industry that will look very different in the future.
Davidse has brought together several small businesses – all world leaders in energy management – and believes that jointly they can within 12 weeks provide a device and conclude simulations to end disruptive load shedding as we know it. In addition, this solution will position South Africa for the future where exclusive central control over the power system will be a thing of the past.
This, he says, can be done at a cost equal to what two days of load shedding costs the economy.
The alliance however takes it much further.
“There are about six million geysers in South Africa with one to two million switched on at any given time,” says Davidse.
If all the geysers were switched on at the same time, it would equal a load of 20 000MW. This is significant if compared to the roughly 29 000MW Eskom has been supplying daily over the past week.
Read the full story: As big as a chocolate bar but ‘it can end load shedding’
