The expended period of Eskom’s load shedding since December 2014 to date is beginning to have a serious negative economic impact, warns energy expert, Chris Yelland.<\/p>\n
The DA has pointed out that impact of load-shedding on the South African people has already been severe. The economy has lost R300 billion and 1,000 000 jobs since load shedding began in 2008.<\/p>\n
In January, the\u00a0International Monetary Fund stated\u00a0that a prolonged period of load shedding would see the country\u2019s economy only grow by 2.1% in 2015, with local economists echoing these sentiments.<\/p>\n
In addition to lower growth rates, Eskom also plans to institute an electricity tariff hike in April which will likely put further pressure on the country\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n
Yelland has now provided more detail on just how much blackouts are costing the South African economy.<\/p>\n
He said that the controlled blackouts since December 2014 have had a \u201cserious negative economic impact\u201d.<\/p>\n
The cost to the economy during stage 1 load shedding \u2013\u00a010 hours of blackouts per day for 20 days a month \u2013 is R20 billion per month.<\/p>\n
Stage 2 load shedding, using the same time parameters, costs the economy R40 billion per month, while stage 3 is estimated to cost SA R80 billion per month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese costs to the productive economy for load shedding in SA are based on a cost of unserved energy of R100 per kWh,\u201d said Yelland.<\/p>\n
A recent technical fault at the Koeberg nuclear power plant resulted in one of its 900MW units going offline last week, which incurred further costs to SA and Eskom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cost of unserved energy to the productive economy in SA caused by this Eskom \u201chuman error\u201d at Koeberg is estimated to be R7.5 billion,\u201d said Yelland.<\/p>\n
Yelland added that Eskom\u2019s additional diesel costs for one week due to the \u201chuman error\u201d at Koeberg is estimated to be R250 million.<\/p>\n
In addition to faults at existing power stations, it was reported on 9 February that the synchronization of Medupi Power Station\u2019s first unit will be further delayed by six weeks to the\u00a0end of March 2015.<\/p>\n
The report follows the recent disclosure by Eskom that the commercial operation date for the first unit at Eskom\u2019s Kusile power station has been delayed by a year from mid 2016 to mid 2017.<\/p>\n
Medupi and Kusile are now only expected to be fully on stream delivering commercial power into the grid by 2019 and 2020 respectively \u2013 both years behind schedule.<\/p>\n
This family lives completely off Eskom\u2019s grid<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Help me sue Eskom<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Eskom wants to charge more for peak demand<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n