- Is a figure of R130 Million too low or too high?
- Is this sustainable when a business is already in crisis?
We are all familiar with the fact that loadshedding is expensive – for the country, its economy and our global reputation. We aslo need to stop and consider just how much loadshedding costs the every inept Eskom every month in lost turnover.
Think of Electricity as an ephemeral time based product – you either lose it or use it and can never really ‘catch up’ your consumption once it is lost. Have you tried making your lights burn twice as bright after loadshedding or your pool pump work twice as fast? What is lost is lost forever. “This is a lot like what happens when you install Solar PV on your roof – what you do not use as self consumption or to charge storage devices is lost to the grid or to heat,” says Straton Solar.
Eskom has a bewildering number of tariffs for different electricity supplies making an accurate estimate of Eskoms charges per kWh a bit of a thumbsuck. Suffice to say that if one looks at charges to Local Authorities those range from 80.27 c/kWh (for Off Peak) to 488.82 c/kWh for Peak.
During January so far (daily figures below) Eskom has shed 89 932 MW of electricity due to loadshedding. That is equal to 89 932 000 kWh.
Lets ASSUME that the average price per kWh that Eskom charges (to direct and municipal customers) is in the region of R1.45 per kWh.
Contrast that with what the South African consumer pays on average which is estimated at R2.56 kWh.
Let’s take the amount of kWh shed in the month of January (89.932 Million) and times that by R1.45 (our ESTIMATED average price charged by Eskom for Electricity) and we get a LOST TURNOVER figure for Eskom of R130 401 400.
Can any business afford to lose R130 Million in turnover month after month?
Factor in the bloated salary bill, fraud, failed maintenance, uncertain futures for employees, political bosses with no clue and zero motivation I would say that Eskom is on the final slope to becoming a pimple in history. Frankly even renewables will not be able to fill that gap fast enough to provide electricity as we used to know it before loadshedding.
Date and Amount of Electricity shed (MW)
- 09 January: 3,371
- 10 January: 3,527
- 11 January: 5,088
- 12 January: 6,409
- 13 January: 5,124
- 14 January: 4,82
- 15 January: 4,81
- 16 January: 5,594
- 17 January: 4,666
- 18 January: 4,723
- 19 January: 4,736
- 20 January: 3,581
- 21 January: 2,576
- 22 January: 3,503
- 23 January: 3,821
- 24 January: 3,703
- 25 January: 3,762
- 26 January: 5,891
- 27 January: 3,592
- 28 January: 3,228
- 29 January: 3,407
TOTAL: 89,932 MW
Maybe it is time to trade in that 4×4 to buy a 5×5 Solar System rather.
Boilerplate and Editor’s Notes.
More Info on How Much is Eskom Losing in Turnover During Loadshedding? here.
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