Mother is Powerless

[Elgee]

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In a statement released just minutes ago, Eskom announced that Stage 4 load shedding will move to Stage 6 as from 18:00 on Monday 9 December 2019.

 

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What is Stage 6 load shedding?

Stage 6 allows for up to 6 000 MW of the national load to be shed. It doubles the frequency of Stage 3, which means you will be scheduled for load shedding 18 times over a four-day period for four hours at a time, or 18 times over an eight-day period for two hours at a time.

 

 

https://www.fin24.com/Economy/Eskom/breaking-eskom-moves-to-stage-6-load-shedding-20191209

 

 

I have no words anymore. This used to be a functioning country.

 

 

[Liitha]

Yikes no good, install solar panels?

[Elgee]

On 12/9/2019 at 8:06 PM, Liitha said:

Yikes no good, install solar panels?

 

Too expensive for most of us. The government doesn't want competition.

[Liitha]

Of course not *rolls eyes*

[Dar'Jen Ab Owain]

(Hugs Mother)

 I'm sorry. I'm trying to imagine the "headache" this is causing.

 

[Ryrin]

I hope things are getting better. It’s summer, now, right? (No matter how wrong that is.) ?

[Elgee]

On 12/22/2019 at 9:23 AM, Ryrin said:

It’s summer, now, right? (No matter how wrong that is.)

 

LoL yep! And yes no load-shedding at the moment, because many businesses are closed for the builders' holidays (15 Dec to 15 Jan) so less power is being used. This might sound like a brilliant idea, but what they SHOULD be doing is implementing load shedding now, if necessary, in order to do as much long-overdue maintenance on the power stations. But no - they'll wait until the holidays are over, THEN they'll do it. So we can lose more billions of Rands.

[Liitha]

Of course, cause it makes perfect sence ..that way they dont have to pay workers to work during the hollidays..let you foot the bill instead

 

 

[Dar'Jen Ab Owain]

Anything logical does not become policy.

[Ryrin]

8 hours ago, Dar'Jen Ab Owain said:

Anything logical does not become policy.

This is true.

[Elgee]

Aaand we've moved onto stage 4 load shedding again.

 

Today we had no power from 14h00 to 16h30 and we'll be off again from 22h00 to 01h30.

Tomorrow is a doozie - no power from 06h00 to 08h00, 14h00 to 16h30 and again from 22h00 to 01h30.

[Dar'Jen Ab Owain]

Sorry to hear that, Mother. Beyond frustrating, I'm sure.

 

So during those periods you have no power at all?

[Elgee]

No power at all. We don't use gas here, except for some restaurants and a few individuals who have gas stoves.

[Millon]

That sounds awful 

[Elgee]

At least I'm getting a lot of reading done! *grins*

[Ryrin]

We have a gas stove, at least. 

[Elgee]

We have a little one plate stove, which is great for emergencies. We try to plan ahead and work around it.

Today our power is off the same as yesterday, but tomorrow it's from 04h00 to 06h30, 12h00 to 14h30 and 20h00 too 22h30.

The morning one is better than yesterday's because we don't have to get up so much earlier to pull the car out, heat the geyser and boil the kettle. Also it's getting dark now (winter is coming!) so it's difficult to read the newspaper by lantern. If the power is on by 06h30 then that's just a bit later than when I normally get up.

 

The lunch time one is also better work-wise, as I can just do some filing and then continue my normal work till closing time (16h30). Today and yesterday's means that we have to close the office and go home at 14h00. That's a lot of work hours lost, and it's our financial year end.

 

The 20h00 to 22h30 one sucks, though - too early to go to bed, too dark now to read a book. I'll try to work on my sister's book on my laptop, but by that time I'm a little tired already and the brain isn't up to it.

[Ryrin]

That’s a lot to work around.

[Dar'Jen Ab Owain]

Good luck managing the power schedule.