Discussion | Mpho Makwana is new Eskom board chair

Interview with David Lipschitz on ENCA re the new Eskom Board

Mabuza responsible for 2 million jobless

My letter in the Cape Times on Monday 20th May 2019

Newspapers are emblazoned with a report from Jabu Mabuza, Eskom's chairperson, and chairperson of Business Leadership South Africa, where he says "South Africa is facing 'unemployment time bomb'".

Eskom believes that it can employ everyone and pay them very high salaries!

Eskom and its construction company subcontractors have forgotten what electricity is for! It isn't for the number of people who can build power stations and how long they can be employed for.

Electricity is for the economy. For job growth.

If Medupi and Kusile Coal Power Stations were complete, as they should already be, then 2 million more people would have work.

Mabuza can blame himself. He, and his colleagues, got Eskom and South Africa into this mess. He must solve the problem, or resign.

I am also confused by the employment statistics referred to in Mabuza articles. If 27% of people are unemployed, which is 6.2 million people, then full employment equals 23 million people.

But there are 55 million people in South Africa. How come 32 million people are unemployable. I get that there are under 18s and over 65s and people who cannot work in the equation, but 32 million of them, which means that only 42% of people are employable?

If Medupi and Kusile were operational, then they would directly contribute 2 million jobs, and if Eskom could get its general efficiency from 60% to 92% where it should be, then perhaps another million people would have work.

And companies would be able to plan, knowing that there is security of supply, and would possibly be able to employ more people, so let's say this is now 4 million people.

Take 4 million from 6.2 million and you get 2.2 million and unemployment is then 9.6%, which is a much more manageable.

So Mabuza is directly responsible for at least 2 million people being unemployed and directly responsible for unemployment of 27% instead of 9.6%.

DAVID LIPSCHITZ, Milnerton

Eskom is insolvent and its directors should be held liable

Eskom is insolvent. Its boards of directors for the past 20 years are liable for its failures, and should all summarily be sued for failing to act on the warnings of the 1998 white paper on energy and the 2003 white paper on renewable energy. What is happening now, is contained in warnings in those reports, publically available, and one would have expected the boards of directors of Eskom to read their reports before assuming Directorship Responsibilities.

If South Africa's law is applicable to private industry, then it is also applicable to public industry, otherwise the law is a farce.

https://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/299282/eskom-is-technically-insolvent/

Integrated Resource Plan 2018

Dear fellow South Africans

re the IRP2018

Nothing has changed since my submissions in 2010. South Africa remains massively short of domestic electricity, water and food.

From an electricity point of view, we still have 40 GW like 20 years ago, but we should have 160 GW. Worldwide growth in electricity, even with Energy Efficiency is 3.6% per annum. That means electricity use should have doubled from 40 GW to 80 in that time, but the population has doubled, so we should be at at least 160 GW.

By our government allowing massive privately funded electricity and water and food growth, in cities, their and our fiscus and tax growth will be accordingly far faster than now. But our government sees constraint and "enclosure" as their means to an end, and so they strangle the economy. Do you feel out of breath? Now you know why!

And see the energy cliff in the 2020's in Slide 15 at https://www.slideshare.net/nazimtiger/power-station-workshop . And you will see the disaster that South Africa is facing.

From a water point of view, in many parts of the country we are making do with 50 litres per person per day, but we should have at least 250 litres per person per day, (including the allowance for industry), to really grow the economy. And we are getting poorer and poorer from a food production and food quality point of view all the time.

Here are my comments from last time. I really don't see the point of commenting again. Government uses my time and resources, free of charge. I don't get thanked, even though I am a very active citizen.

http://saaea.blogspot.com/2010/11/integrated-resource-plan-irp-2010.html

http://www.energy.gov.za/IRP/irp%20files/ORBITAL_RENEWABLE_ENERGY.pdf

And my comments on the NDP also help to inform where we are at.

http://mypowerstation-sa.blogspot.com/2013/09/south-africas-national-development-plan.html

All this research funded my my company.

Regards
David Lipschitz
BSc BSc (Honours) MBA M.Inst.D.
Organising Data, Programming and Bringing Healing

Play the cards right - David Lipschitz's Letter in the Cape Times on 1st December 2017

Much is being written about Eskom's failure and the reasons for it.

It is sobering to think that when Medupi coal power station was originally budgeted, it was forecasted to be complete by November 2015, and Kusile by April 2017. If this 9.6 GW was already on the grid, the fiscus would be earning R286 billion more per annum and another two million people would be employed. Instead of being "R50 billion under budget", as Minister Malusi Gigaba recently said, we would be R300 bn over-budget.

It is time for people to realise that you can tax the input side of the economy as much as you like, but it is the output side of the economy that will make you orders of magnitude more money in income, and also in savings due to not having to pay out so much unemployment benefit.

Why no load shedding recently in South Africa?

We aren't having load shedding because tens of thousands of people are installing embedded generation.

Embedded generation means generation at the point of use, or generation that is embedded inside the grid, rather than Eskom power stations which are at the source generation points on the grid.

Embedded generation including:

• solar-electric photovoltaic (PV) systems
• wind turbine systems
• generators: petrol, diesel
• gas-engines (gas generators)

Even without load shedding, electricity prices are incredibly high in South Africa, and the threat of load shedding looms for at least the next 3 years, according to Eskom, and many more years according to me and the IRP (Integrated Resource Plan).

SANEA: The Eskom War Room 22nd July 2015

The Eskom War Room in the office of the Presidency of the Government of South Africa. Talk given by Ashraf Karim, who works for the National Planning Commission (NPC). The talk was at the UCT Business School.

Eskom and South Africa should take a long hard critical and objective look at itself

I think its time for Eskom to take a long hard look at itself, especially in light of Thulani Sikhulu Gcabashe's goals back in 2000.

Why has it failed in almost everything it set out to do?

Please note that if you post racist insults in reply to this post, I will delete them. Let's be adults here and stop the blame game. What worked? What didn't? Why didn't these goals get achieved? Who stopped them? Why? What / whose interests were served by decisions that were taken or not taken? Why did the government say that it wanted 30% of Electricity Generation to be in private ownership by 2010, and why did Eskom and the Cities prevent it? Where else has this happened, e.g. Italy? Why do governments make policies and strategies that they have no intention of implementing (not just South Africa, but Britain and Italy as well)?

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/black-power-x2013-eskomx2019s-first-black-ceo-speaks-about-how-he-will-lead-the-utility-through-its-transition-2000-10-27/searchString:Eskom+obligation

Sorry if you can't read this article, but here is a summary:

"To continue to be the lowest cost energy producer in the world."

“The line we have taken is that we enjoy an advantageous position that needs to be protected and that is the position of providing the world’s lowest-cost electricity."

“Eskom has afforded the economy some R11-billion in the last five years in terms of the price reduction in real terms.”

"The greatest contribution Eskom can make is keeping the price low and continuing to electrify, thereby bringing more people into the mainstream economy and making impacts in terms of health and education."

International Sales!! "For example, the pebble-bed modular reactor project is part of the diversification plan – Eskom is developing a new generation product which can be sold elsewhere."

Pulling the plug

"Pulling the Plug"

HomePower Magazine: "Threats of eliminating net-metering options and rising connection fees are causing some consumers to look at exercising greater energy independence."

Note that I have been advocating for a long time that utilities and municipalities set up systems so that those who have the means can install systems and feed the grid 24 hours day, using Net Metering and Time of Use Tariffs and Demand Response. In South Africa, I believe that Eskom can only supply 10% of the real demand in the economy.

Whether this happens or not, electricity users will create their own power stations and community power stations (micro-grids), so lets rather do it together as a nation, rather than apart, as individuals or a community.

Energy Analyst David Lipschitz Interviewed on CNBC Africa - by phone - Open Exchange Program - Interviewed by Tumisho Grater

The points I spoke about are:

1) NERSA: the price increase is not off, just delayed. (NERSA said "Eskom's documentation is not in order." I think Eskom will try for an increase in January so that municipalities can get ready.)

2) Government doesn't want to fund Eskom anymore. Eskom's financing status at "Junk" which means that debt financing is very expensive.

Normal financing isn't working anymore. We need to think differently.


3) Use Time of Use Tariffs for everyone in South Africa. Then people can choose what they want to pay, eg 50 cents per kWh between 10pm and 6am; R2 from 6am to 10pm and R4 at peak time (7 to 10am and 6 to 8pm).


4) Use Demand Response for everyone in South Africa. Then Eskom can do "load shedding" and switch off non-essential loads in peoples houses.


What I didn't mention is that Net Metering should also be implemented without a service fee. This will incentivise people to make electricity and especially to sell it at peak time. Sales can be at 40 cents per kWh, R1.60 per kWh and R3.20 per kWh and Eskom can pocket the difference between their buying and selling price.

CNBC Interview on 23rd June 2015: David Lipschitz in the news

"National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) begins its public hearings into Eskom's 25.3 per cent tariff increase application for the 2015-16 financial year. To discuss this CNBC Africa is joined by David Lipschitz, energy analyst at My Power Station: Software, Energy, Power."

And the video is here. I was interviewed on CNBC Africa's Open Exchange Program, by Tumisho Grater.

And CNBC's article is here.

On Facebook. On Twitter. On Google+.

And on CNBC Africa's daily news feed here. Click on:

"ESKOM PLEADS FOR TARIFF HIKE, BIG BUSINESS WARNS OF JOB LOSSES"

Eskom's workers help push rand to new low

Our erstwhile politicians and Eskom's workers are pushing the Rand to new lows. Official unemployment is at 37.8%, our worst ever.

And the 2 million unemployed people who could have work if only Medupi and Kusile Coal Power Stations were online, like they should be, don't realise that they need to go to Lephalale (Ellisras) and tell Eskom's workers to do their jobs!

Oil price has increased from R743.38 per barrel on 30th May to R806.98 today. 8.5% higher.

Rand at 12.44 to the $
13.99 to the Euro
19.04 to the Pound

$ is high against Euro at 1.12, but it has been as low as 1.4, which would make the Rand Euro 17.42!!!

Understanding Renewable Energy - Jargon Busting - Training

Please follow Load Sheding Guru on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LoadShedingGuru
Shedding has two D's except on Twitter :)

Please tweet this:

Understand Renewable Energy. Online Training (Webinar) by @LoadShedingGuru . http://loadshedding.guru/webinar-web-seminar/ #LoadShedding

Bring Culprits to Book: David Lipschitz's letter in the Cape Times on Monday 16th March 2015

Dear Editor

​There is so much happening in the electricity industry at the moment​,​ and so few of us who are up to date on proceedings and commenting on them. Thank you for the recent letters and articles that you have published.

The suspension of these Eskom executives couldn't have come at a worse time for South Africa and its electricity supply.

It is possible to conduct internal audits without suspending the most
​crucial people on your board of directors. And that board was elected by the President and his cabinet!

As the ​cabinet has a "war room", set up on December​ 11​, concerning Eskom, shouldn't the entire cabinet be suspended? This would create an automatic election​. Or at least suspend the current and former ministers of ​energy and ​of public ​enterprises​.

[I listed their names: the Cape Times left the names out:​ They are Lynne Brown, Malusi Gigaba, Dipuo Peters, Ben Martins, Tina Joemat-Pettersson.​]​

​Former Eskom​ chief executive​ Brian Dames, who ​the position from July 2010 until March 2014, should also be called to book as well as all the suppliers and unions who signed contracts to build the Medupi and Kusile power stations in ​eight​ years​,​ and at budgets 37​ percent​ lower than currently, and who have failed miserably in this task.

Yours faithfully,

David Lipschitz

More people need to put in place embedded and micro power generation

Insight Article in the Cape Times today: "More people need to put in place embedded and micro power generation".

Dear all

Many people have been asking me "what happens if there is a blackout" and I've been replying to you and also saying, please wait a week, as I've written to the Cape Times and if they publish I'll send out the email and if they haven't published within 2 weeks, then i'll also send out the email.

I pray that you enjoy reading this email and that it allays your fears of a complete breakdown "blackout" of the South African national grid. As more and more people take responsibility for all or part of their electricity and water needs, so the risk of a complete meltdown gets less and less. At the same time as this, as Eskom does more and more of the Planned Maintenance it MUST do on its power stations and the national grid, the less chance there is of catastrophe.

Best regards, and thank you for all your support. There is no way I could continue with this endeavour without the support and encouragement I receive from you all.

David

---

Dear Editor

More and more people, including MP's interviewed after President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address, are asking about the chance of a nationwide electricity blackout. Such a blackout would be a catastrophe because of no water pumped, no fuel, no transport, fridges and freezers stopping to work, and after a few hours or perhaps two days, riots and civil war as people look for water and food.

The national electricity grid is about R100 billion behind on maintenance, so that means that the chance of sections of the grid going down are relatively big, as compared with there being no grid maintenance backlog.

The chance of all the power stations going down at the same time gets bigger and bigger as Eskom does less and less maintenance.

But recently, it has realised that it has to initiate load shedding so that it can do maintenance work.

I just pray that it is taking down enough of the power stations for long enough to do the required maintenance. I'd rather have four hours of load shedding a day and no chance of a blackout than 2.5 hours of load shedding a day and the chance of dying in two days time.

But there is a silver lining to the crisis.

People are installing generators, whether they are petrol, diesel, gas or renewable energy. As people and companies become self-reliant, the grid becomes more stable and the chance of a mass blackout gets less. As this is happening, more people are installing pool covers and water tanks, which also protect the need for water.

Meanwhile, Eskom has finally come to the party and asked businesses with private generators to register themselves on an Eskom database. It pays for these businesses to be part of its system, and sometimes asks these businesses to turn their generators on to prevent load shedding. In this case, Eskom pays for all or part of the cost of running the generators. But Eskom still don't want these businesses to reverse-feed the grid, so an opportunity is still being missed.

Resilience is built into the system. If only the government (ANC and DA) would allow reverse-feed, homeowners and shopping centres and other people installing generators (of any kind) could provide excess electricity into the grid, stabilising it even more.

Eskom has said for decades that embedded generators destabilise the grid, but this is plainly untrue. Turkey has confirmed the country's wind turbines have stabilised the grid. The US is installing more embedded generators, because this provides resilience and stabilises the grid and, therefore, the economy.

So the more people, businesses, shopping centres, industry and mines take responsibility for micro and embedded generation, the better for all South Africans poor and rich.

And if Eskom puts up electricity by 24% in July, private homeowners who install battery based systems might actually be able to save money on their electricity needs.

And, of-course, these homeowners aren't effected by load-shedding, except perhaps for cooking and heating elements, but even those might be economically powered come July.

From a City of Cape Town point of view, imagine if the DA had followed through and allowed Feed In Tariffs in 2009 and Net Metering in 2011. Cape Town would not be affected by load shedding, we would have the head offices of businesses based in Johannesburg moving to Cape Town, and the Western Cape would be booming, sustainably.

Yours faithfully,

David Lipschitz

Portfolio Head of Energy on the Greater Cape Town Civic Alliance Exco.

Crank up old machine for new tricks

My first ever Comment on the Insight page of a newspaper.

We are all very excited here in Milnerton. Thank you to everyone for your support and to the Cape Times for publishing my letters over the past 6 years since I started writing about electricity. I feel like I just got my degree in journalism after more than 6,000 hours invested and very many conferences, reports, newspaper articles, magazine articles, discussions, forums, debates, presentations to parliament, meetings with political leaders, my friends at the Milnerton Proper Residents Association and the Greater Cape Town Civic Alliance, etc.

I'd especially like to thank my Facebook community friends for your ongoing support on this particular forum. Being an Active Citizen is often very lonely, but you guys and girls always show up with your "likes" and the many comments, critical sometimes, but always appreciated, and your ongoing support.

Thank you to everyone. You are always in my prayers.

Click on the picture above to read the article.

Saving for a rainy day

Dear friends

We put money away for a rainy day.

We have insurance to cover us if something gets stolen or if our house burns down or if our property is damaged.

We have pension plans.

So from these things that we do, we can see that we think about the future and we prepare for it.

However, we are really only between 2 and 4 days away from catastrophe at any time! So why are we planning for events in perhaps 30 years time, but not being prepared for events tomorrow?

So what can possibly go wrong in the next few days which should concern us?

Our electricity supply is becoming more and more precarious. Eskom should be able to supply 42 GW of electricity but on a regular basis it can only supply only around 30 GW. The grid infrastructure is overloaded which puts a large burden on transformers which are reaching end of life in half of their usual life, ie 12 years life instead of 25 years life.

Our grid itself is behind with maintenance and many of our power stations are already beyond end of life and are being kept running, but who knows when they might break.

Our best coal is exported and we use poor grade coal in our own power stations, and everyone knows what happens to their car engines when they use poor grade oil in them!

And then Eskom have shown since Koeberg was built in the 1970's that they cannot manage the build of new power stations which usually take years longer to build and are usually 50 to 100% over budget, yet we continue to allow this.

With all this damage being done to our system, willingly or unwillingly, we are placed in a dilemma.

If our electricity supply is suddenly switched off the following will happen very quickly:

1. Most people are meat eaters. They won't be able to cook their food, unless they have reserves of braai (BBQ) wood. They will get hungry.
2. Backup generators will kick in. Many of these only have 16 hours of reserves which is seen as more than sufficient under normal circumstances, e.g. expected power failures of 1 to 4 hours a day.
3. After 16 hours the Backup generators will stop working.
4. Petrol pumps won't be able to operate because they rely on electricity.
5. All transport will stop within days. There is only 4 days of food in our supply chain, and without transport, our just-in-time systems will not be able to be replenished. And there won't be transport to get diesel to our backup generators.
6. Water pumps won't be able to operate because they rely on electricity. So we will be without water very quickly. We won't have drinking water and we won't be able to flush our toilets. And we can survive for 2 weeks without food, but we cannot survive for 2 days without water. How many people have got water backup at their houses and businesses?
7. Within days, fridges and freezes will get hot and food stored in them will be useless.
8. Within one to four days there will be a complete breakdown in all forms of civil obedience. Hungry, desperate people, who normally aren't violent, will suddenly become violent as they search for food and water.

So should we care? And what solutions are at hand?

If you are interested in finding the solutions for yourselves, then please go to the Renewable Energy Festival at the Green Point Park in Cape Town on Saturday 8th February 2014. Renewable Energy isn't only about electricity. It is also about water, about food, and about self sufficiency. So renew your energy and keep yourselves secure. See you there.

I am also available for consulting. In as little as an hour you can get a handle on what you can do for yourself, your family, your company and if you have staff, your staff. If you need more details, my colleagues and I can also provide whatever depth of knowledge you need.

Love,
David

My Story: Creating South Africa's second Utility without any government incentives or public borrowing

Dear friends

In 2008, the government announced Feed In Tariffs. I was there. In Parliament. Invited by a Member of Parliament who I already knew because of my Energy Research, which started in about 2004.

In 2009, the government implemented Feed In Tariffs, but made them impossible to get. No one got them! In 2011, the government said that Feed In Tariffs were illegal and changed to the British Tender System. In the meantime Britain had just changed from the Tender System to the Feed In Tariff system because the Tender system had failed!

The Tender System led to over-regulation and over-regulation leads to corruption.

Meanwhile Eskom compares (benchmarks) themselves with Enel in Italy. And Italy suffered from the same problems as South Africa. great Feed In Tariffs, but no implementation. If you want to follow this approach, then Enel is the company to follow.

In 2011, the City of Cape Town announced Net Metering which they implemented in 2012 and changed in 2013. And today in 2014, not one person, organisation or company has got a Net Metering system in the City of Cape Town.

The DA has learnt from the ANC. Say one thing whilst doing another. This is called GreenWashing and it leads to corporate and private investment, which then finds that the situation isn't real, and then these investors close up shop and leave.

The DA and ANC's solution? Nuclear Power, Coal Power and Frack the Karoo. Are these a good idea? Do they solve South Africa's peak demand problem? Are they water and environment friendly? Where does the waste go? How much water do they use? Do they pollute? Are there more modern 21st Century alternatives that give 24 hour "base load" electricity?

In the meantime Billions of Rands has been wasted by thousands of businesses, investors, private individuals like myself, NGO's, NPO's, and many others, trying firstly to be ready to meet the demand, then trying to fit in with regulation and then trying to work out what to do to radically increase South Africa's electricity supply.

Many of these people were happy to give their time free of charge, but most of these people have been chased away and have given up.

South Africa is a resource rich, labour rich and capital rich country, with a lot of goodwill. It should be growing at 10% after inflation per annum, i.e. at 16% including inflation. But it isn't. Why isn't it and what can we do about it? And why has the goodwill evaporated?

The South African economy is close to R4 trillion per annum. 10% in real terms is R400 billion. The government is a 1/3rd of the economy, hence R133 billion in tax to government. This is a lot higher than all the money that can be gotten by taxing the things that make the economy work, for example electricity, water, rates, transport. And it can be done without government borrowing. And every year the backlog in schools, hospitals, school teacher salaries, etc, can be addressed, with change to spare and without government borrowing, and the tolls on all South Africa's roads can be removed, as they won't be needed.

If you are interested in these answers, in hearing my story, and learning why I and others are creating a new market for electricity in South Africa, email me and we'll be happy to come and share with you.

I have 15 minute presentations, one hour presentations, and presentations all the way up to detailed one day workshops. And if you'd like a week of my time, we can also arrange this. So far, it takes me about 3 days to tell my entire story and explain all the parts that make up the new system that I have developed. I am happy to have discussions and I am happy to talk off the cuff without notes and without tape recorders. If you want to record the sessions you are welcome. If you want to invite your entire staff for a motivational talk, you can also do this.

Ke nako: the time is right for rapid, sustainable, secure, environmentally friendly and inexpensive electricity generation which creates an environment for rapid, sustainable, secure, environmentally friendly and inexpensive economic growth.

I look forward to hearing from you.

David.
Skype: MyPowerStation
Email: david@mypowerstation.biz

David Lipschitz on Net Metering 2012-02-22

Attention Messrs Achim Steiner, Adnan Amin and Kandeh Yumkella

Your article in the Business Day is incredibly timeous as this past week I have reinvigorated my campaign regarding Net Metering.

South Africa is in a recession largely because of lack of electricity supply. This can easily and cost effectively be resolved by allowing Net Metering. By July this year, private citizens in Cape Town will be able to make their own electricity cheaper than we can buy it. And I have financial numbers which show that larger companies can already make their own electricity cheaper than they can buy it.

With Net Metering, users of electricity can buy and sell electricity at the same price. For example, if I produce 1 KW and need 2 KW, then I buy 1 KW from the Grid. Effectively, my meter is going slower than normal. And if I produce 2 KW and need 1 KW then I export electricity to the grid and my meter goes backwards at the same speed it goes forwards. This only happens with people who pay for their electricity in arrears and who have the old fashioned disk meters which look like small metal CDs. Prepaid meters either stop working, stop turning, or go forwards when one is exporting to the grid!

The South African Bureau of Standards created a document called NRS 097-2-1:2010 which was adopted by NERSA, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, in 2011. The technical term for this Grid Integration, Reverse Feed and Net Metering is "Grid Interconnection of Embedded Generation."

It allows for Grid Tie systems up to 100 KW, an artificial limit. I have two clients who are considering buying large roof top net metering systems: one at 700 KW and one at 500 KW. I also have numerous smaller potential clients who want to use Net Metering and know of a number of people who are already reverse feeding the grid. The grid doesn't see them and they are having very little effect. Their excess electricity is simply used by the neighbour.

Eskom and The Cities, including the so called advanced city of Cape Town and the Western Cape's Provincial Administration (PAWC), have not adopted the "Embedded Generation" policies. The three main reasons given are:

1. The Grid Tie inverter might reverse feed the grid when the grid is switched off, eg for maintenance, and an electrician working on the line might get electrocuted;
2. Eskom and the Cities will lose revenue;
3. The grid might become destabilised.

1 was resolved in 1999 with the American UL 1741 standard which was harmonized with IEEE 1547. Any inverter which is listed to the UL 1741 standard may be connected to a utility grid without the need for additional anti-islanding equipment, anywhere in the United States or other countries where UL standards are accepted. A similar acceptance of the IEEE 1547 is happening in Europe. An island is a grid which can run internally, for example inside a building, without exporting electricity to the main grid. Many companies in South Africa already have Generators and when there is Load Shedding, ie enforced power failures because the demand is either too high or the supply too low, these systems "Island" the Generator and its "clients" until the Grid is restored and then there is a process of disconnecting the Island and reconnecting the Grid. These processes happen seamlessly and are installed by Electrical Engineers.

2 would be solved if government would see out of their silos. The opportunities are great if Citizens of the City of Cape Town and other cities could get the government, which owns Eskom, and the Cities to see out of their silos. I believe that the City of Cape Town gets 60% of its Revenue from Electricity Sales and the 150% increase in electricity over the past 5 years has increased this percentage from 40%. The fastest way to get renewable energy adopted is to allow private people and business owners with the required roof space to cover their roofs in Photovoltaic Systems. This will create jobs, reduce unemployment, reduce crime, increase lighting and electricity in Africa, give security of supply, fewer power failures, less chance of load shedding, and help move us away from polluting power stations. In places like Germany, California and China, the more renewable energy that is installed, the faster the economy grows. This is because the bigger base load power would then be available for the organisations needing the bigger loads, for example shopping centres, new housing developments, miners, smelters and other large users of electricity. And more importantly businesses know their electricity price for decades and can plan accordingly; and businesses get security of supply and fewer disruptions caused by electrical systems failure.

3 is a red herring. I understand that Turkey has found that wind farms up to 500 KW actually stabilise the grid. And in South Africa the two new 4.8 GW power stations will massively destabilise the grid when they are switched on and switched off. Switching on or off 1 KW or 500 KW is tiny compared with 4.8 GW, ie 4,800,000 KW. And if South Africa loses the main power lines from Mpumalanga to the Cape, for example in a storm or terrorist activity, then Cape Town could quickly be without 60% of its electricity supply as only 40% of Cape Town's electricity supply comes from our local Koeberg Nuclear Power Station.

I should say that large users of Renewable Energy such as Germany and Belgium notice problems on their grids when the Renewable Energy component reaches 20% of electricity supply, but it has taken these countries 20 years to get to this point, and with Feed In Tariffs. I think South Africa can do it in 10 years, and by then Germany and Belgium will have solved their problems and South Africa will be able to follow their lead. Breaking news: Germany is solving this grid destabilisation problem!!

I would very much like to help you in any way I can. In November 2008, the South African government announced that Feed In Tariffs (FITs) would be in place by March 2009. My company and hundreds of others decided to get ready for this momentous day. Unfortunately this didn't happen. There were FITs but no Power Purchase Agreement. Since approximately 2009, there has been a 2 cent levy (see what it was meant to be for!) on all electricity sold in place to pay for the FITs and my understanding is that there is R15 billion in this fund already. Be that as it may, we don't need FITs in South Africa anymore. We just need the implementation of Net Metering. Interestingly the Standard allows for Time Of Use Tariffs which would incentivise people to install battery systems to supply electricity at peak time whilst producing or buying electricity at off peak time.

And the R15 billion could be used on a first come first served basis to allow private people to install renewable energy systems before VAT and before tax. Businesses can already do this. See http://mypowerstation.co.za/2011/11/26/my-power-station-press-release-26th-november-2011-david-lipschitzs-renewable-energy-jobs-plan/  for more ideas along this theme.

Hence there would be zero drain on the fiscus and massive job and GDP creation on a Continent that will have the biggest consumer base in the world in the next 20 years. We can either supply our own needs or export our electricity requirements to China and the other Asian Tigers who are massively ramping up electricity production and who will end up making everything we need, but who will then end up owning Africa, as large creditors usually end up owning their customers when the customer cannot pay the bill.

The positive possibilities of Net Metering in Africa's biggest economy and in the rest of Africa are mind blowing. Let's work together to make a difference.

I look forward to your reply and to helping make Renewable Energy a reality in South Africa and on the African Continent.

Eskom says protracted coal strike could risk power supply

See an Engineering News Report.

All the more reason to allow deregulation in the electricity sector so that customers can provide their own electricity using Net Metering and Grid Tie Inverters. Incentives could also be put in place to move home owners from peak to off peak time where homeowners could use the incentives to install battery systems to completely remove themselves from the grid at these times.