This time last year the power crisis was in the headlines – now it’s a media non-event. Is business still concerned? Yes, Keith Brebnor, CEO of the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), told FTW. “The problem hasn’t gone away,” he said, “although, luckily in some ways, the manufacturing industry has been going slower because of the global economic crisis – and power demand has therefore diminished.” But the problem hasn’t faded, despite serious industry attempts to curtail their power usage. A concerted effort is being promoted by Business Unity SA (Busa), which has been holding talks with all its industry members. “Eskom,” said Brebnor, “has asked for a 10% voluntary cut from industry, and it has managed so far to get 5%.” But that doesn’t dilute the problem, according to Dr Laurraine Lotter, head of the appropriate committee in the Chemical and Allied Industries Association (CAIA) – and the supply side of the coin still had to be adjusted. “The possibility of further power outages is still there,” she said, “as Eskom needs to bring its reserve margin to 10%. It has not yet achieved that, and we are moving into the power station maintenance period from February.” Lotter agreed that the international, economic belttightening had a somewhat beneficial effect. “The economic conditions are helpful,,” she told FTW, “in that industrial production is down, and there is less power off-take.” She is also proud of the business effort. “Business,” Lotter said, “has done a lot of work in improving energy efficiency.” Another good indicator points to commerce and industry still being twitchy about the regularity of power supply. According to Dave Pretorius, MD of Generator and Plant Hire (G&PH), generator sales and hire have gone extremely well in the past three to four months. “We’ve just signed up deals for 56 generators for a large chain of service stations,” he told FTW, “and to a foreign embassy for 173 sets.” A stimulant for these acquisitions is that power outages are again lurking on the near horizon. Said Pretorius: “Eskom has been saying that the next power shedding could take place in February, during the power utility’s maintenance programme.” The market has been so buoyant that G&PH has been persuaded into sales of generator units as well as its original function of unit hire. “The boom has just been too big to ignore,” said Pretorius. The hire side has also been growing continuously, he added, even in the normally quiet month of December, which saw record levels at the end of last year.
