Penalties for power hogs likely to wait
October 23, 2008
By Justin Brown
Johannesburg - The government is expected to delay implementing proposed energy penalties until after next year's general elections, to avoid upsetting consumers.
Proposals before the national emergency response team are that consumers that use more than 10 percent more than their allocation on three occasions will face an electricity price of R18 a kilowatt-hour, which is 72 times the average electricity price of 25c per kilowatt-hour.
Consumers that are up to 2.5 percent more than their power allocation for the first time will be charged R2.80 per kilowatt-hour, or 11 times the average energy price.
LJ Grobler, a North West University academic, said the penalties Eskom was considering were likely to be implemented after the elections, probably in the second half of next year.
"Those that do not save electricity will face drastic increases in costs," he told a mining and industrial energy savings seminar organised by power and automation technology company ABB.
"Over time these penalties are likely to get harsher."
The power utility and the department of minerals and energy are proposing different savings targets for different sectors of the economy.
Andrew Etzinger, an Eskom spokesperson, confirmed that there was a proposal for energy penalties and that it was a "hot topic".
Etzinger said the penalties were aimed at encouraging consumers to cut back power use at a time when the utility had "little extra load".
The company had been considering various options, which it could start implementing next year
The proposal is for the mining and agricultural industries to save 8 percent of power compared with their consumption in the year to September; industry 10 percent; commercial and residential consumers 20 percent; and the state and parastatals 25 percent.
Grobler said the local economy was characterised by energy scarcity, demand constraint, load shedding and pending penalties.
Companies could achieve energy savings by changing their employees' behaviour, operational efficiency, equipment efficiency and technology.
The greatest savings in energy consumption could be achieved by combining changes in human behaviour with those in technology.
"Awareness rarely translates into savings. Technology alone will not results in savings. People and technology create savings," Grobler said.
He said studies showed that some firms used up to 56 percent of their energy outside normal working hours.
Ian Langridge, Anglo American's global energy efficiency manager, said that in addition to the energy crisis, the local economy faced the long-term cost of carbon penalties.
Langridge said Anglo had been consuming 1 500 megawatts of power in its South African operations and had saved 110MW. The group had cut power consumption by 5 percent at its platinum operations and by 10 percent at the rest of its local mines and processing facilities.
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