BUSA is deeply concerned at the latest power emergency declared by Eskom today - the fourth one in as many months and the most serious announcement to date - as these are now cumulatively beginning to have serious economic and business consequences for SA. While if further load-shedding is inevitable, it is nonetheless better that energy saving should be spread over the whole nation than repeatedly placing an unfair burden only on a small number of intensive energy-users, the overall outlook has increasingly become a critical and uncertain one. Eskom's inability to maintain a stable power supply is inhibiting investment, growth and job creation, as well as having a negative impact on productivity.
BUSA's concern should be seen in tandem with the further delay in Parliament this week in the Independent Services and Marketing Operations Bill (ISMO), to which business was looking to create a more competitive environment for energy supply and to provide greater energy security in future. In the meantime, every effort must be made to get all sources of ancillary power mobilized and load-shedding must be planned to cause the minimum disruption to economic activity, transport and welfare. If confidence is to be restored, there needs to be more awareness at the highest level of the reality of the situation, and greater transparency in decision-making.
In view of the seriousness of the electricity situation, BUSA will be seeking urgent meetings with both the Minister of Public Enterprises Malusi Gigaba and the Minister of Energy Ben Martins as soon as possible to again discuss the challenges on the energy front.
Enquiries: Raymond Parsons - Special Policy Adviser, BUSA 083 225 6642
Eskom implements load shedding
Thursday, 06 March 2014: Eskom will start implementing rotational loadshedding from 09:00 this morning according to the published load shedding schedules available at http://loadshedding.eskom.co.za/ for Eskom customers. Municipal customers need to contact their own municipalities for the correct schedules. Eskom customers can also contact our customer call centre on 0860 037 566.
Eskom calls on consumers to urgently switch off geysers, pool pumps and all non-essential appliances throughout the day to further reduce the impact of rotational load shedding.
We anticipate that we will be load shedding until 22:00 tonight. However, should we receive the necessary savings from all our customers and the situation improves, we will terminate load shedding earlier.
Customers are cautioned to treat all electrical connections as live during this period.
Eskom will provide regular updates on the status of the power system through all media platforms.
Eskom had declared an emergency at 06:00 this morning and asked key industrial customers to reduce load by 10%.
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