One easy way South Africa could reduce load shedding
South African cities could reduce the electricity outages that are hobbling the economy by installing water heaters powered by artificial intelligence, a 30-month study has shown, reported Bloomberg.
Installing devices that automatically switch off to avoid consumption at peak times and take advantage of solar power at the sunniest hours of the day in just a quarter of a city’s households could slash blackouts by 20 hours a month, research by South African startup Plentify showed.
Plentify, whose chief executive officer is a former head of Google’s energy business in Africa and has a former Tesla executive as an adviser, carried out the study on 500 homes in Cape Town and the Western Cape province’s Hessequa municipality.
It showed that maximum demand from water heaters, which can account for as much as half of household electricity usage, could be reduced by 60%.
South Africans have had to endure power outages of more than 10 hours a day over the past 12 months as the country’s fleet of ageing coal plants regularly break down.
However, there are some positives emerging in the energy sector that are also helping to reduce load shedding, according to the latest Utility Power Statistics compiled by independent energy analyst Pieter Jordaan.
Jordaan noted that Q3 of 2023 is currently experiencing some of the lowest demand seen in five years, which he attributed to the growth in alternative energy sources by households and businesses – particularly solar.
While the power supply gap is still evident – hence the continued need for load shedding – demand is definitely tracking lower than at the same time in previous years.
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