|
"The threat
of power supply interruptions is never far from the public imagination," complains
Business Day, a daily newspaper from Johannesburg,
South Africa, "while the poor state of the distribution sector goes unnoticed."
But is South Africa's power distribution industry really a "ticking time bomb",
as former Minerals and Energy minister Buyelwa Sonjica claimed four years ago? Some
South Africans may soon find out.
Last week,
the South African government pulled the plug on the group tasked with maintaining
that nation's aging power-distribution infrastructure. EDI Holdings was
successful at adding to South Africa's power generation capacity, but failed to
empower regional electricity distributors (REDs) that could facilitate the
restructuring of the power distribution industry. Although most municipalities
won't miss the REDs, they may not be ready to fill the void.
So how bad are
some parts of South Africa's grid? Typically,
maintenance budgets are badly underfunded. The number of power outages go
underreported, too. Planning for them is also more art than science. For
example, one municipality planned for 14 outages in a month and underwent 150. Other
communities do not even maintain records for blackouts.
What do South
African members of the CR4 community think about the state of their country's
power distribution system? Are the problems really that bad? If so, what are
the solutions?
Source: Business Day
| 
Re: Lights Out for South Africa?
