Daylight savings can help Eskom: analyst
Professor Raymond Parsons from North West University has called on government to look at implementing daylight savings to alleviate Eskom’s frail power position over the medium term.
Daylight savings time is the practice of advancing clocks during the lighter months so that evenings have more apparent daylight, and mornings have less.
The idea was mooted during Eskom’s original crisis in 2008, a time which saw mass load shedding, much to the frustration of business, and to the detriment of the economy.
A proposal was made in parliament to divide the country into two time zones to spread peak times of electricity consumption.
However, a study by Eskom, in 2006 concluded that there would be no significant impact on the energy consumption, either in the reduction on the peak demand or reduction on the base-load power, as a result of introduction of daylight saving.
In an interview on SABC, Parsons said that while a number of potential long term solutions are already in the works to alleviate Eskom’s power shortages, there is a gap in the medium term.
“What can we do in the next year or two, to avoid these marginal situations? One of them is daylight saving,” Parsons said.
He pointed out that the country had used daylight savings in the second world war as part of an effort to save on coal to make the war effort succeed. “It worked quite well,” Parsons said.
“We have it (daylight savings) in Namibia, on our doorstep, so there are no geographical problems here” Parsons noted.
“Its helpful at the peak times – even 1% being saved at peak hours, is going to help,” the analyst stressed
He said it would be worth trying for a period of three years, “to help us get through this very difficult period”.
Parsons urged the portfolio committee in parliament on energy to have a hearing on daylight savings and other steps to avoid the current weekend warnings by Eskom and to fill the gap between now and new energy
Parsons is professor in the faculty of economic and management sciences at North West University.
Eskom declared a power emergency late last week, urging major industrial customers to reduce electricity consumption by at least 10%.
“The power system is severely constrained today due to the loss of additional generating units from our power station fleet, reduced imports, and the extensive use of emergency reserves,” Eskom said in a statement at the time.
Eskom has also published load shedding schedules for its direct customers on its website, but has stressed that these are only “a precautionary measure”.
In January, the power utility warned that the threat of load-shedding may continue for the next two years, as it continues with an intensive maintenance programme.
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