Seeing the light

We’ve been waiting for this day for a long while. And now it’s come very suddenly. At 2pm today, I got a call telling me that the solar installers are coming around tomorrow.

And they’re going to install some solar.

As regular readers of this blog will know, loadshedding is arguably the most dominant force in South Africa right now. It affects everything, and while we have no control over the things outside our home, we can at least do something about what’s going on in our house.

Not that we should have to. We already pay the government money to supply us with electricity. But then we also pay them for stuff like security and healthcare, and we still have to privately top those up to get any decent, viable service.

This system won’t take us completely off the grid. That would be desirable, but also outlandishly expensive (not that this is in any way cheap). But it will cut our bill by at least 80%. And it will mean that we’re able to live our lives with some degree of normality, and a bit more on our terms. Work will be easier. Food won’t spoil as quickly. No more last minute dashes for the kettle or the microwave. Expensive devices won’t break due to constant power cuts and surges. There will be sport on the big screen. The beagle will have a nightlight.

We’re still very lucky to be able to do this. And it’s weird that access to such a basic human right is a luxury.

I’m not going to be a solar wanker, claiming that my altruism is lessening the load on the rest of the country, nor am I ever, ever going to utter the phrase:

Yeah, we don’t even know when loadshedding is happening anymore.

But I am looking forward to our first session of loadshedding once our batteries are charged up, and there simply being… life as normal.

Whatever that means.

Why has everything taken so long?

A frustrating morning which on review makes it look like I’ve been really lazy.

Not so: every single little job has taken longer than it should. Gutter work that needed a lot more effort than seems reasonable (but was worth getting right*, looking at the weekend forecast). Pool work that was more complicated than it should have been (and required some arm-deep work underwater – brrrr). The static bike “computer” having to be dismantled and repaired. A hole in the ceiling to patch up. The washing machine playing silly buggers. Tomorrow’s blog post to write. Images to edit for the school.

Just simple stuff that took ages and filled the morning.

Oh, and all of that against the backdrop of 12 hours of power cuts including ALL THREE of these:

…and more besides.

The afternoon will be spent watching horseriding over on the far side of the mountain.
The evening will apparently be spent in darkness.

* although i’m not completely convinced that i have done

It’s happening next door

Botswana has implemented loadshedding. That might not seem very surprising to people “overseas”, but generally, Botswana is regarded as the stable, unfluttered, well-managed, “sensible cousin” bit of the Southern Africa. Well, the bit on the continent, anyway: Mauritius is the gold standard for excellence if you’re willing to cross a bit of ocean. More beaches than Botswana too.
But look:

It reads almost word for word like an Eskom announcement. And indeed, why not copy the text from the experts? A couple of points regarding the above: the footer unironically stating that they are “Powering Botswana To Prosperity” (except for the next few weeks, it seems). And the images top right, which are actually the same image, but with one very slightly rotated. Sadly, this only serves to suggest that the transmission line in question is falling over. Prescient.

Of course, we’re also in for blackouts this evening, including one at dinner time. Spotting this ahead of time, I’ve fired up the braai and we’re going to make the most of it with some decent meat and some decent red wine. There’s nothing we can do about it, and constant unfettered rage (like this lady – wow) will surely only lead to an early grave (which will mean less incidences of loadshedding in your lifetime, but still…).
So we’re going to cook oor die kole this evening, saving electricity we haven’t got and making the most of the situation. The glass is always half full, unless it’s that shiraz from Tulbagh (which it is), in which case it gets drained pretty quickly.

Pre-drinks?

A rather nice Bloody Nora (with this and this). Soooo good.

See you on the other side.

Off again – and that font?!?

The issue with our ailing power utility – so we were told – wasn’t the years and years of rampant corruption, but rather the guy who was in charge. He was in the process of stepping down when he gave that bombshell interview about all the corruption and was politely(?) asked to leave immediately.

So, now that he has gone, everything should be ok. Right?

Wrong.

Weirdly, it seems that he wasn’t the issue. So we have no idea what the problem could actually be*, but there clearly is a problem of some sort. Because I’m sitting here for another 10 hours without power today, because of the ongoing demand and supply problem. We want 31.3MW, they can only give us 24.7MW. And if you don’t cut the power to cover that shortfall, everything falls over and it’s a very bad thing.

Those figures come from this tweet from last night:

And I actually love the way that they’ve done their best to cushion the blow by using a whimsical font. Who do we think came up with that idea?

“Not looking great on the grid figures tonight. We’re dangerously short and we need to tell people.”
“OK. Send the twee… no… wait. Do you have a kind of handwritingy font we could use?”
“What?”
“You know. Something a bit fun and disarming.”
“But we’re the official state power utility. Shouldn’t we be using the official state fonts?”
“Well, yes. But let’s show our human side. Just something a bit playful and quirky to take their minds off the awful numbers.”
“Well, I mean, I have got this one…”
“Like, actually Oh Em Gee! It’s So frikkin perfect! Look at the devil-may-care lack of connection on the loops! Observe the mildly curved downstrokes! The capricious overshoot on the Es and Ms! Do it!”
“Er… right. The numbers are still bloody horrendous, though.”
“Who cares? It’s so pretty! Quick, just click SEND before the boss comes back!”

I imagine that’s pretty much how it went, anyway.

Sadly, using my scientific brain, I was able to see through the eccentric and unprofessional choice of typeface, and I’m actually pretty worried about just how bad the situation is. But hey, it’s so easy to get bogged down in bad news. I guess that we should take solace in the fact that they haven’t used Comic Sans yet, so maybe we’re still somewhere just above rock bottom.

* although there is still that years and years of rampant corruption thing, but… surely not?!

What are the chances…?

What are the chances of there being loadshedding over the next year or so?

Well, in this breakdown (no pun intended), Eskom (our state electricity provider) (occasionally, at least) details how much electricity we’re likely to need and how much they’re likely to be able to supply for the next 52 weeks

Green is good, i.e. Supply > Demand = no loadshedding expected.
Red is bad, i.e. Demand > Supply = there will be loadshedding.

Aaand…

Ah. Oh.

ACTUALLY QUITE RED.

To be honest, the red “worse case” blocks “only” stretch as far as Stage 2 (ish). That is, about 2000MW short. And without normalising or excusing the awful situation, I think that – right now – most South Africans would take that as being something of a win.

Especially as we’re sitting at Stage 4 this evening.

But of course there is no redder red than the red on this table. So actually the red means AT LEAST Stage 2, and could mean anything up to Stage 37 (or whatever). I think we need a purple and a burgundy and maybe even (terrifyingly) a black, so that we can really see what’s going on.

On the plus side, Week 13 next year looks brighter – quite literally – well, unless it’s not.

We should have our personal measures to mitigate this nonsense installed by the end of the month, all being well. Roll on that glorious day.