In all honesty, I did not think I would end up writing a post defending Eskom. But a recent conversation with Phathu, and Eskom's recent projected price hike has got me thinking.
South Africa's power crisis has two facets. The obvious is that there is the crumbling infrastructure, where the government did not take the advice given to them by Eskom, to invest and improve to meet the demands of the future. But the second is that, our utilisation of energy, especially electricity, is not very efficient. We use more electricity, and thus we have problems providing power - but are we utilising our electricity resources correctly.
Take geysers - how many South Africans switch them off when not particularly useful - say during most of summer? Even after load shedding started - how many people regularly switch them off? In fact, switching them off is not much of an issue - all that is required is to install a simple timer, costing about R600 (including installation when I last checked). And geysers themselves are a bit overspec'ed - the bachelor flat I am staying in right now (for this month) has a 150l geyser - how does one person possibly use that much hot water? In Brazil, and much of Peru, geysers were rare. Instead, many showers had an "instant" heater installed in the bathroom, and that would provide hot water. But I do not see that succeeding in South Africa - and anyway, the cost of replacing the plumbing will be too much of a deterrence.
In the capitalism theory, everything has a price. Under this theory, Eskom raising electricity prices is probably the best possible outcome. Instead of wasting energy, we will be forced to adapt - forced to switch off appliances when they are not being used, because otherwise we cannot simply afford to pay for the electricity. And off course the rich will still have no problems paying the higher price - but the rich do not stay rich by wasting away their money.
Ultimately, we need more electricity generation, and we need better electricity utilisation. Maybe, the price increase is the only realistic way to force people to use electricity better.
3 comments:
I think its also a matter of attitude, people like to complain without doing anything on a personal level to help the situation. Its always about how someone else should do something. In terms of the "complaining index" South Africans must be ahead of the pack.
People always seem to react illogically to price increases. If I sell bar-ones for R2 today, it's a bargain. If I then double my price tomorrow, people will scream bloody murder about a 100% price increase, even though R4 is still a decent price.
I'd rather pay the direct cost of funding upgrades to the infrastructure now (paid by the people who actually use the electricity), than the indirect cost of the whole infrastructure collapsing and thus damaging the entire economy.
I think the length of time it takes to rectify problems like this probably distort the recipient's sense of reimbursement.
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