Eskom says it has too much electricity in the early hours of the morning, and wants to work with business to change the time of day at which electricity is consumed.<\/p>\n
Speaking on BusinessDayTV<\/a>, Andrew Etzinger, senior GM of Eskom, said: \u201cDuring the wee hours of the morning\u2026we actually have so much power available, because demand is low, that we are actually needing to trip generators off the grid, because there is simply too much (power).\u201d<\/p>\n He said that a conversation needs to be around incentivising industry to shift towards those hours of the morning.<\/p>\n Etzinger said that the power utility aims to widen its incentivised \u2018Demand Response\u2019 programme which asks industrial users to cut back on consumption when \u201cthings become tight\u201d.<\/p>\n He said that, to date, Eskom has approached its top 150 customers by size, but the group is extending this programme to its top 500 customers.<\/p>\n Etzinger said that a partnership with South African business is vital in order to keep the lights on.<\/p>\n Winter is here<\/strong><\/p>\n In a separate interview on CNBC Africa, Etzinger said the Eskom is well prepared to face the cold winter.<\/p>\n He said that while the cold weather puts a lot of extra pressure on the grid, because of an increase in heating devices, and gets darker hours for longer\u2026 \u201cthat\u2019s normal for this type of year. From Eskom\u2019s side we are well prepared\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe worst case scenario would be a cold front over the whole country, that sits for a couple of days. And if that\u2019s during the week, we would be in trouble in the early evening,\u201d the Eskom spokesperson said.<\/p>\n He said that Eskom could cope with weekends. The natural demand is lower, because business is offline.<\/p>\n He said that the rolling blackouts occurred in March, this year, and in 2008. He said that in the summer, the demand for electricity was steady, \u201cif you have a problem, it lasts the whole day.<\/p>\n \u201cWinter is different, if you have a problem, it lasts an hour or two maximum,\u201d he said adding that it wasn\u2019t too disruptive in an early evening scenario, referencing 8-5 businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can cope with short spikes in demand,\u201d Etzinger said.<\/p>\n However, acting Eskom CEO Collin Matjila on Thursday (5 June)\u00a0warned that the country still remains vulnerable and it will be the same during winter.<\/p>\n “While we continue with maintenance as part of our strategy to have remaining capacity… we will see a reduction in the maintenance schedule.”<\/p>\n On March 6, the power utility introduced deliberate power cuts for the first time in six years, said Matjila.<\/p>\n “We project from information received from weather experts that this winter is likely to be the same as last winter,” he said.<\/p>\n “We are not expecting a severe winter.”<\/p>\n Even so, measures were being taken to ensure the winter demand was met.<\/p>\n “We are better prepared to assure South Africans of our ability to supply electricity,” the acting CEO said.<\/p>\n Eskom execs forgo bonuses<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Eskom issues load-shedding warning as cold weather sets in<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nMore on Eskom<\/h3>\n