How to figure out when your power will be cut in Cape Town with the 2014 load shedding schedules from Eskom

To figure out when your power will be cut…  follow these easy steps:

Step 1) Go to the Eskom page and see what “Shedding Stage” Eskom is in: http://loadshedding.eskom.co.za
It can be one of Stage 1 or Stage 2 or Stage 3. (Stage 3 is much worse than Stage 1)

Step 2) Next step depends on which stage Eskom is in.
Step 2a) If Eskom is in Stage 1 or Stage 2 then: 
i. Go to this page and click on the area where you live: http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/electricity/Pages/LoadShedding.aspx
If your area doesn’t appear – then (I think) you are lucky that you will not be affected by Stage 1 or Stage 2 shedding.

ii. If in Stage 1 then the areas in those maps will only be load shed on certain days of the week.
iii. If in Stage 2 then the areas in those maps will be load shed on every day of the week.

Step 2b) If Eskom is in Stage 3 then:
i. Go to this page http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/electricity/Pages/LoadShedding.aspx   and click on “map” to see which area you live in
and the 3 times that you will be affected which is printed on the top right of the map: http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/CSRM/Documents/LoadshedMar2014Stage3rev2.pdf

I hope this makes it easier to figure out what’s going on?

1 more day to purchase 27.3% cheaper electricity... do it now

CapeTown electricity is going up by 27.3% on 01July - that leaves 1 day for you to stock up on cheaper electricity:  

Refer to my earlier blog "Does it pay to topup your pre-payment meter?", I have purchased a few months' worth of electricity.

Here are some of the questions that are answered:
3) How much pre‑paid electricity can I purchase before the increase?

To save money you can top up your pre-payment electricity to a maximum of 9,999 units. www.energy.co.za allows purchases of up to R2,500 per transaction but more than one transaction can be made…. as long as your credit card can take it! If you try and top up too much, then your meter will disallow entry of the ‘token’ – you will need to wait until you’ve used up some units.

Note: that if you pay a ‘daily service fee’ [on tariffs: ‘Domestic 1’ or ‘Domestic 3’], then you cannot pre-purchase ‘daily service fee’ “credits” (in other words, you can only stock up on units, not ‘daily service fee’). This means that if you purchase 4 months worth of units, you will pay the current per unit price of electricity, and in 4 months time when you purchase again, you will then be charged 4 months of ‘daily service fees’ (at the new increased rate)…. So, there’s no getting around the ‘daily service fee’ increase.

4) When must I key in my purchased units?
The purchase transaction is for units (not Rands) – the pre-payment meter has no knowledge of the actual price of the electricity, so it doesn’t matter when you enter the token into the meter – as long as the purchase is made before the price increase comes into effect (that’s probably 01July for City of Cape Town).

...and more

And while you're saving money, why not ready the blog "Why pay cash for pre-paid electricity when you can use your credit card?" and earn cash back and "reward points".

Pre-Emptive Load Shedding Schedule for period 05 May to 31 May 2008 [Cape Town]

Remember to charge those torch batteries for Monday's new load shedding schedule, and remember load shedding creates a potential security concern.... so join your local neighborhood watch and get out there and patrol your area to ensure that the baddies don't win the war!

Here's the City of Cape Town's explanation of Pre-Emptive Load Shedding: Click here for the explanation.

Here's the Pre-emptive load shedding schedule [30Kb]: Pre-emptive_loadshedding_schedule.pdf
or in .xls format [71Kb]: Pre-emptive_loadshedding_schedule.xls

Yuk!!!!! I've just looked at my "schedule" and we'll be shed twice, at the worst possible times: 2x weekdays: 18h00 to 20h30... oh no! This is going to be hell - thanks a lot Hellskom!

For further information, please contact the City's Call Centre on 0800 220 440

Eskom price increases are looming…. Does it pay to fill up your pre-payment meter or not?

This article tries to answer all these questions and more…. (and ElectricityTariffCalculator.xls tool)

When are the tariffs going up? How much will the increases be? How full can your pre-payment meter go? How much can I purchase on my credit card? Which tariff plan am I on? If I fill my meter up too much will I lose my free 50 kWh per month?

First of all I’d like to acknowledge the sources of my information:

To answer my list of questions I Googled a lot but couldn’t really find any answers so I decided to write an email to Eskom and to www.energy.co.za. I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Eskom early the next day requesting more information (the region that I was in), but even more impressed when I received a telephone call from Donovan from the www.energy.co.za support team who meticulously explained how the tariffs work and gave me the answers below.

Other sources:

http://www.capetown.gov.za/wcmstemplates/Electricity.aspx?clusid=458&IDPathString=5992-6182&catparent=6182#electariff

http://www.capegateway.gov.za/eng/pubs/news/2006/jun/139535

Note: all specifics (tariffs and dates) relate to the City of Cape Town. Eskom customers and other regions will have different rates and dates, but the principles are probably similar.

1) When are the electricity tariffs going up?
City of Cape Town’s financial year runs from 01July – so increased tariffs will probably be on 01July, so you’ll need to purchase your extra units before then. Why not put a reminder in your calendar now….”Thurs26June: purchase n‑months worth of electricity”. (Eskom's financial year runs from 01April)

2) How much are the electricity tariffs going up?

I have read that they will be going up by 14.2% but I have not seen an increase yet. Eskom has requested approval for a 53% increase, but this has not yet bee approved. At this stage (as on 22April2008) neither the 14.2% nor the 53% increase has been finalised.

3) How much pre‑paid electricity can I purchase before the increase?

To save money you can top up your pre-payment electricity to a maximum of 9,999 units. www.energy.co.za allows purchases of up to R2,500 per transaction but more than one transaction can be made…. as long as your credit card can take it! If you try and top up too much, then your meter will disallow entry of the ‘token’ – you will need to wait until you’ve used up some units.

Note: that if you pay a ‘daily service fee’ [on tariffs: ‘Domestic 1’ or ‘Domestic 3’], then you cannot pre-purchase ‘daily service fee’ “credits” (in other words, you can only stock up on units, not ‘daily service fee’). This means that if you purchase 4 months worth of units, you will pay the current per unit price of electricity, and in 4 months time when you purchase again, you will then be charged 4 months of ‘daily service fees’ (at the new increased rate)…. So, there’s no getting around the ‘daily service fee’ increase.

4) When must I key in my purchased units?

The purchase transaction is for units (not Rands) – the pre-payment meter has no knowledge of the actual price of the electricity, so it doesn’t matter when you enter the token into the meter – as long as the purchase is made before the price increase comes into effect (that’s probably 01July for City of Cape Town).

5) If I purchase a lot of units now, will I lose my free units per month (or be moved to a high-usage tariff)?

If you are on tariff ‘Domestic 2‘ (i.e. low consumption: less than 600 kWh per month) and if your average consumption over past the 12 months is less than 400 kWh per month, then you qualify for 50 kWh free per month (that’s 50 free units per month).

You are charged by ‘how much you consume’, not by ‘how much you purchase’…. So, purchasing lots of units before the price increase will not affect your free units per month (as long as you stay using less than 400kWh per month!)

Note: it’s human nature to use more when there is more…. ie: if the meter’s full, the human will use more electricity – so beware!

6) How can I calculate the savings?

Since the exact increases are not yet approved, it’s difficult to calculate the savings, but I have assumed two increases: 14.2% and 53% and allocated these increases to the ‘per unit’ cost and the ‘daily service fee’ – see the ElectricityTariffCalculator.xls for figures.

So, what's the bottom line? Does it pay to fill up your pre-payment meter or not?

Yes, if electricity goes up by (say) 15% then you will save 15% - so, figure out whether it's worth "investing" your spare cash into buying "cheap" electricity before the increases.

{It's the same reasoning process as when the price of petrol/diesel goes up - although your petrol/diesel tank has a lower capacity (50 litres, or whatever) - in the case of electricity purchase, the limit is your credit card limit :) }

Any more questions? Any errors spotted? Do you have any more information?

Write a comment and HandyTechTipper will attempt to answer asap.

Pre-Emptive Load Shedding Schedule for period 31 March to 30 April 2008

Remember to charge those torch batteries for Monday's new load shedding schedule, and remember load shedding creates a potential security concern.... so join your local neighborhood watch and get out there and patrol your area to ensure that the baddies don't win the war!

Here's the City of Cape Town's explanation of Pre-Emptive Load Shedding: Click here for the explanation

Here's the Pre-emptive load shedding schedule [47KB]: Pre-emptive_loadshedding_schedule.pdf

Battery+inverter or generator: the Pro's and Con's

With all the blackouts aren't you thinking of getting a Generator for your power needs? Well after reading this article you might put that "Genie" on hold for a battery/inverter combination!

This article that was sent to me by the "SA Community Information Centre" cic@constantcontact.co.za - an organisation that is dedicated to preventing crime in South Africa.

Why not visit their web site here: http://www.cicfamily.co.za and support them.

I found it very informative and decided to share it (with small modifications):

"
To shed light or not to shed light, that is the question?
Here is an informative e-mail we received that might help us through the dark times ahead:

With all the rumours that are currently flying around regarding the onset once again of "load shedding" I thought I would send you the following, with the hope that if you can send it out on your mailing list it might prove useful to some of your family members, and keep the neighbourhood peaceful as well as safe.

After careful consideration and talking to a number of specialists on the subject, I came to the opinion that generators have a number of disadvantages.

They are expensive to buy and run and maintain, the smallest you can reasonably expect to supply you with sufficient power is a 5kVA, a good/safe one of these will cost anything from R10,000 to R20,000.
Storing petrol is dangerous and whilst most people do it for their garden lawnmower etc. the amount needed for a generator is too much to be safe and I felt that with the maid or gardener handling it, it was an accident waiting to happen.
Generators are excessively noisy and will disturb the neighbours, they cannot be safely operated in a garage or enclosed space, and they emit dangerous exhaust fumes and must be well ventilated.
Most, if not all of them create a poor power supply with a number of "spikes" that will blow your computer and damage most household appliances. You have to make sure that your water heaters and certain other circuits are turned off before starting the generator and then you have to make sure the generator is properly switched off when the power comes back on to prevent feedback which again will damage your appliances.
If you are not at home then your wife, maid or kids will have to set it up and start it.
Taking all this into account I decided to make up my own solution.

I added up the total Wattage of what I wanted to run during "load shedding" and I purchased:

• 1 x 1,000 Watt inverter: cost R1,250 from PSS Distributors Nr ABSA Stadium
• 2 x 100 Amp "Deep Cycle" no maintenance batteries: cost R900 each from Dixons Batteries in North Coast Road.
• 1 x Intelligent charger: cost R850 from Dixons Batteries or Makro.
• Total cost: R3,900

There are two ways of using this system, the first and easiest is to simply connect it up and put an extension cord and multi plug into the inverter, connecting whatever you choose to run to this.
The second is what I have chosen to do, that is to get an electrician to disconnect the circuits I want to power from the Eskom supply (Distribution Board) and re-connect them to my unit, when the power goes out they just keep on working, when it comes back on the charger kicks in and recharges the system, basically the circuits I have selected are now running permanently from the inverter.

I have connected my outdoor security lights, alarm system, lounge sockets (T.V. DSTV and a couple of standard lamps), all my bedroom sockets for bedside lights and my office telephone and computer system). It might sound complicated but it’s basically just a bigger version of the UPS systems many of us are already using to power our computers, and the inverter is something every caravanner and camper knows all about. The advantage is that it's silent, safe and convenient, you can make it as big as you want, to power as little or as much as you need.

It’s not advisable to use it for the cooker, or for your hair-dryer, vacuum cleaner nor kettle, but then neither is a generator and with a 2 hour power cut it's surely not too hard to do without those.
You could run the refrigerator but again for two hours you don’t really need it.
You don’t need two batteries unless you are going to run a lot of items, as I do. Then it is advisable to have two batteries linked in parallel - the electrician has calculated that I can run all I have allowed for up to 4 hours without the need to recharge the batteries.

Points to be aware of:

• You must have "Deep Cycle" batteries, preferably low maintenance [normal car batteries are not designed for this purpose and will not last very long].
  
• You must have an "intelligent" charger: it’s worth spending a little more on this to make sure it does the correct job.
  
• If you have more than one battery always connect them with proper heavy duty battery connectors (you can buy them at Midas) and "in parallel" [that’s + to +, and - to - otherwise you will increase the voltage from 12 to 24 volts and damage the inverter!]
  
• If you decide to make this a permanent set up (as I have) then get a registered electrician to connect it up for you. (If all you are going to do is run an extension cable and sockets from this then you can easily set it up yourself.)
  

The advantages are obvious:

• It’s cheaper than a generator to both purchase and run and maintain.
  
• It’s silent: a generator in every house is going to drive us all to distraction.
  
• It’s safe: no petrol to store and no exhaust fumes to ventilate.
  
• It’s fully automatic if you’re not at home it just kicks in and does its own thing.

"

Here's more info:

• Choosing Between an Inverter and a Generator
  
• What is the difference between a normal lead-acid car battery and a deep cycle battery?
• Does a time switch on your geyser actually save electricity?
• Now I know when Eskom load shedding will happen (well, almost....)

Stay tuned for an upcoming blog on "how to choose your generator": size (KVA or Watts) and how much can I connect to it? Plus: safety tips,