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Duduzile Ramela: From politics to energy. So if you are a resident of Buccleuch, Kelvin, Poulshof, Marlborough, Sunninghill or Waterfall in Johannesburg and you have a smart meter, you should take special care as Eskom has selected you to be part of its load shedding initiative. There may be.
Hilton Trollip is an energy analyst. Mr. Hilton, thank you very much for your time this afternoon. Please tell me exactly what this is. It was piloted last year and has been successful in some areas, so we believe it is now being expanded. Let's start with the term load shedding. What are you talking about?
Hilton Trollip: So what we're talking about is, Mr. Dudu, you voluntarily agree not to use more than a certain amount of power at a certain time. This means that when you turn on the oven, or switch on the oven and kettle, you use a lot of electricity at the same time. So what you agree with is not to do that and only have low power devices on your system, or only have one high power device at a time, such as a kettle.
I mean, you can put a kettle on, but if you put a kettle and a toaster on it, you're going to get a cut after a while. The reason they do something like this is because, by the way, this is a progressive movement and is being done in many countries in different ways. So in South Africa, people have become accustomed to having access to as much electricity as they need at any given time, whether they live in places like Bukuro or suburban healing towns. You can have as much as you want because you can pay for it.
What this is doing is, there's a shortage, so it's up to everyone, so maybe we can work together and everyone can take what they need, when they want, and turn on all the air conditioning. instead of reducing it. All we are doing is completely reducing personal consumption. Does that make sense?
Duduzile Ramela: Makes perfect sense. Does that mean these people have been identified as high energy consumers?
Hilton Trollip: Perhaps because these smart meter records show past consumption. But most importantly, this is a constitutional issue, but behind the meter measures, in other words, to interfere with the electricity supply in the home, it is your right not to do so. So this is optional.
What Eskom is saying, and what I really like about this, is that instead of falsely pretending that we haven't been able to offload for a long time, this is an acknowledgment that we have a common problem, and It also acknowledges that: Together we can solve this problem. For example, to give an unrelated example, if everyone in South Africa turned off their hydrothermal geysers, he could reduce the load reduction level by two levels. But getting everyone to use the geyser is a problem. People say, “If you can use a geyser, why don't I use it too?''
So that's kind of what Eskom is saying, that because of this load shedding mechanism, you can't voluntarily install geysers or kettles. They say he can cut the supply completely and reduce the load by two levels, or everyone can voluntarily reduce it to a certain level. But with a smart meter, what you'll be able to do is say, Okay, there's an agreement that for the next hour he's not going to use anything but one kettle or one thing at a time. “Yes” is displayed. Or if you just use lights and TV etc. they are all low. People will quickly understand what high-power devices are included in this. That way we won't cut you at all.
You can keep all your low-power devices on, such as your TV and lights. We can all do that. With a smart meter, you can look at each person and say, “Wait a minute, we all agree to do that, but the smart meter tells us that you're switching on high power.'' ” Power devices, and I'm sorry, but with this group of people working together and combining efforts to reduce load shedding, that's not acceptable. So we're going to cut you.
So if you want to join those who voluntarily don't water, when there's a water shortage, we ask everyone to use less water, but then we drive around the suburbs. If they're running around and you're watering the garden, you're in trouble. The same goes for this: power is scarce, everyone uses less power, and there is less shedding. But for those who are voluntary and choose not to cooperate when they agree, Eskom says, sorry, we are not cooperating, van, no power, load shedding during the load shedding period. can be said to do.
Duduzile Ramela: That's why my brother is always watching over me. This means that Eskom is actually controlling the smart meters.
Hilton Trollip: That's why I don't like my brother. I like this idea. This is in every society and we all want to work together. If you've ever been a teacher, managed students, or run a company, you know that most people want to do it well, and the one person who doesn't… If you go looking for someone, you are not a big brother. Instead of cooperating, you're doing the adult thing and going to find these irresponsible kids and saying, “Guys, come on, we're all trying to help.” Because there's a kind of liberal response to this, it's not big brother, how can they see this, etc., and it's not like that. This is progressive and collaborative.
Duduzile Ramela: Understood. Hilton, last question. Because you're going to talk to energy analysts, they're going to say that business is also a big contributor. Because we were enjoying a reprieve as businesses closed in early January. So what is being done in that regard to ensure that large companies can play their part?
Hilton Trollip: There's a lot going on, Dudu. So starting with the really big companies, they've always done this with Eskom from the beginning. Eskom has contracts with all the big companies. They have different levels of demand, and Eskom said when agreeing the rates, it wanted to agree to asking large companies to voluntarily reduce their consumption if there was a shortage. , and companies do it. They've been doing that from the beginning.
Small and medium-sized enterprises, this will be even more difficult, and probably all small and medium-sized enterprises will be drawn into the smart metering system. But the really large and medium-sized energy users have been doing this forever anyway.
Duduzile Ramela: Thank you very much, Mr. Hilton. Hilton Trollip is an energy analyst.
