Eskom's Capitulation

Eskom has capitulated and ordered 3 Turkish Ship Based Power Stations. In my opinion this shows that Nersa, which obviously has licensed these “IPP’s” doesn’t care about the many South Africans who have volunteered to power South Africa, and at the same time it shows that Eskom is unwilling or unable to complete their power station build and will now outsource their “base load” power to a Turkish Company. It also shows that although the South African government have constantly said that they cannot have large embedded generators inside the South African grid because the grid needs “strengthening”, in actual fact this is a lie as these three ships will be embedded in the South African grid.

David Lipschitz Publishing has just been born

Load Shedding

 

I've been speaking and writing about Load Shedding and Energy since 2004. Here is a post from 2009:

http://repairyourworld.blogspot.com/2008/12/preventing-load-shedding-power-failures.html

How to get people to listen and to do something instead of blaming and complaining and being distracted?

2012 Rooftop Solar Revolution

This might be helpful from 2012.

Rooftop Solar Revolution Book.

2012-09-12

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/new-book-rooftop-revolution-takes-aim-at-king-cong-12057 

My comments:

This is truly excellent news. It is great to have books like these which support the Solar Revolution which is now a Social Revolution rather than a Technological Revolution, as the technologies now exist and their pricing is approaching grid parity in many parts of the world. From a really simple point of view, all we need is Net Metering and Time of Use (TOU) Tariffs and no service fees, except perhaps a Retail Wheeling tariff for electricity sold into the grid. The Time of Use Tariffs are required so that homeowners and others are incentivised to move their electricity use outside peak time. In South Africa, our peak times are 7 to 10am and 6-8pm. My wife did some baking last night at 10pm. She should have received a lower electricity rate for consuming this electricity late at night. Also Concentrated Solar Technology with Storage has reached parity with Nuclear build costs and so should be built instead of nuclear. Concentrated Solar has the further advantage that it will supply peak load, something nuclear cannot do.

Covid Cause and Effect

One could say that Covid caused a whole bunch of problems in the world.

Or one could say that Covid is the result of a whole bunch of problems in the world.

What do you think?

 

Business and People Controls vs Computer and Systems Controls

I recorded this video after a discussion with a client who has a problem with anyone in the organisation placing orders, and wants a computer workflow sign off system to solve the problem. I pointed out that the best computer system in the world won't work if the associated people and business controls aren't also implemented.

Scope Creep in Agile Projects

Can there be Scope Creep in Agile (Mini Waterfall) Projects? David discusses with the beautiful backdrop of Cape Town, a Remote Programmers' Paradise. I've been working remotely for 20 years. Talk to me if you need help being remote or being agile.