ForumGarden

Fourteen years on from transformation and majority rule ¦ we have been informed by our electricity utility Eskom ¦ The Electricity Supply Commission ¦ that due to lack of planning and foresight ¦ we are a couple of power stations short.

Eskom also supplies power to Zimbabwe ¦ Botswana ¦ Lesotho ¦ Swaziland ¦ probably also Namibia and Mozambique.

So in order to conserve electricity until these new power stations come on line ¦ they have implemented the following system ¦

All cities town villages etc have been divided into different zones and for a two hour period every day the power is cut to each zone in turn ¦ in other words on a Monday the power is cut in our suburb from 6am – 8am ¦ Tuesday from 8am – 10 am and so on and so on ¦We all get a turn to have our power cut sometimes in the morning or the afternoon or the evening ¦

Now today a friend of mine who is an electrician has told me that this is just a conspiracy to prepare consumers for a 100% electricity tariff increase by the end of 2008 ¦

He claims that once a coal fired furnace that runs a generator is fuelled up and the generator is running ¦ electricity cannot be stored and that NO benefit is derived from cutting the electricity supply to consumers ¦

He says the same applies to our nuclear power station and that once the atom is split the electricity cannot be stored ¦

Can anyone out there tell me if he is right or are we being conned?

jones jones;837207 wrote: Fourteen years on from transformation and majority rule ¦ we have been informed by our electricity utility Eskom ¦ The Electricity Supply Commission ¦ that due to lack of planning and foresight ¦ we are a couple of power stations short.

Eskom also supplies power to Zimbabwe ¦ Botswana ¦ Lesotho ¦ Swaziland ¦ probably also Namibia and Mozambique.

So in order to conserve electricity until these new power stations come on line ¦ they have implemented the following system ¦

All cities town villages etc have been divided into different zones and for a two hour period every day the power is cut to each zone in turn ¦ in other words on a Monday the power is cut in our suburb from 6am – 8am ¦ Tuesday from 8am – 10 am and so on and so on ¦We all get a turn to have our power cut sometimes in the morning or the afternoon or the evening ¦

Now today a friend of mine who is an electrician has told me that this is just a conspiracy to prepare consumers for a 100% electricity tariff increase by the end of 2008 ¦

He claims that once a coal fired furnace that runs a generator is fuelled up and the generator is running ¦ electricity cannot be stored and that NO benefit is derived from cutting the electricity supply to consumers ¦

He says the same applies to our nuclear power station and that once the atom is split the electricity cannot be stored ¦

Can anyone out there tell me if he is right or are we being conned?


If a thousand houses have a power requirement of ten megawatt and you have eight power stations capable of generating a megawatt each then, at peak load, you will have to cut power somewhere. As the peaks can occur throughout the day, power cuts will be required in rotation.

With a fluid bed coal burning power station the output can be varied but only slowly. Overnight all of them will be slowed down to reduce output rather than stopping two or three as it take time and effort to stop and start them.

Given the time lag on change of output is is necessary that the system does include some form of accumulator - generally a potential energy store.

Thank you Mr. Mawr!

Batteries store electricity, don't they? Windmills, generate electricity which is stored in banks of large batteries. Solar panels store electricity into banks of car batteries, also. I personally know a few living up here in places that are off the power grid, generating enough power via either/or or both methods, to run computers, television, satellite cable and phones.

Pardon my wandering on. Mr Mawr did a wonderful job answering the question.

Bryn Mawr;837318 wrote: If a thousand houses have a power requirement of ten megawatt and you have eight power stations capable of generating a megawatt each then, at peak load, you will have to cut power somewhere. As the peaks can occur throughout the day, power cuts will be required in rotation.

With a fluid bed coal burning power station the output can be varied but only slowly. Overnight all of them will be slowed down to reduce output rather than stopping two or three as it take time and effort to stop and start them.

Given the time lag on change of output is is necessary that the system does include some form of accumulator - generally a potential energy store.




thats what i always believed ... thank you for your input!

double helix;837420 wrote: Thank you Mr. Mawr!

Batteries store electricity, don't they? Windmills, generate electricity which is stored in banks of large batteries. Solar panels store electricity into banks of car batteries, also. I personally know a few living up here in places that are off the power grid, generating enough power via either/or or both methods, to run computers, television, satellite cable and phones.

Pardon my wandering on. Mr Mawr did a wonderful job answering the question.


and thank you too double helix ...