Load shedding has been suspended

[Ming]

Eskom's suspension of load shedding has been welcomed, but the electricity supply problems had already done damage, analysts say.

Many said it was too late to go back for consumers and businesses that lost millions of rands because of the power company's policy. And there was some cynicism about the utility's claims that the reason for the suspension was a reduction in demand.

Eskom this week announced the suspension of all planned load shedding, although there could be emergency cuts. The reason given for Eskom's change in attitude is that the country's top 10 municipalities had together reduced demand by up to 8 percent.

When asked how municipalities were able to calculate power savings during load shedding, Louis Pieterse, a general manager at City Power, said municipalities had constantly analyzed the reduction in demand and consumer consumption. They excluded load shedding savings in their analysis.

"Without giving any figures, I can say there definitely appears to be a move towards energy efficiency among the public and businesses," said Pieterse.

Eskom general manager Andrew Etzinger said municipalities had achieved savings through a variety of load-reduction measures - one of which was switching off geysers.

Pieterse said City Power had ripple controls on 150 000 geysers in the city that switch off geysers.

"We are also replacing street lights with energy-efficient bulbs," Pieterse mentioned as one of the load-reduction measures.

SA National Consumer Union vice-chairperson Ina Wilken said: "Load shedding has a very detrimental effect on the economy. Do they think we are gullible to believe that load shedding will stop?

"I think Eskom are telling us this so that we will pay the 60 percent price increase because they are actually doing something."

Economist Dawie Roodt said it had been calculated that R6-billion would be lost to the public coffers as a direct result of load shedding.