Electricity distribution on the verge of crisis
Urgent action needs to be taken to rehabilitate the dilapidated infrastructure that supplies electricity — or the economy faces yet more hammer blows, writes Tom Nevin
The electricity supply network in SA is heading for failure unless the Department of Energy, electricity utility Eskom, and city and town councils can find ways to fast-track infrastructure rehabilitation and new installation. "No doubt about it," says sector specialist Melusi Maposa. "Our failing electricity distribution infrastructure is seriously putting SA’s economic growth at risk. If the lights went out in the past 12 months, then it was a distribution failure, not load shedding," says Maposa, MD of resources at Accenture Management Consulting. In a 2015 National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) report, "one municipality managed only 2% compliance with the Nersa scorecard. Compliance is often a measure of quality of electricity distribution. No industrialist would start a business in a 2%-compliant town." For years Nersa has reported the failure by municipal electricity distributors to comply with licensing conditions, largely because of insufficient refurbishment and maintenanc...
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