Dear Frankfort Residents and all South Africans following the Frankfort v Eskom saga.
On 20 April 2023, Rural Free State lost its urgent court application (not decided on merit but rather due to the fact that Mafube Municipality did not submit its affidavit in support) to allow Rural to continue implementing “voiding” - a manner to reduce the negative effects of power cuts on the citizens of Frankfort with the use of Solar Energy while still reducing the supply from Eskom.
The day after the judgement, Rural ceased “voiding”, and started to dump any unused energy from the solar farm while still switching off zones as per the load shedding schedule.
Rural also continued with the gathering of metered data, so discussed at the “technical” meeting on 5 May:-
Frankfort uses less electricity when Rural applies voiding than when it abides by Eskom’s wishes to cease voiding.
Eskom commented that the new metered facts so presented is not relevant as it is simply concerned about the instantaneous reduction of load at a specific time. The fact that Frankfort has reduced its loading on Eskom by more than required, does not matter.
The fact that Voiding is a tangible, demonstrated solution to reduce the loading on Eskom’s generators, Eskom views as not relevant.
Eskom has referred Rural to the NRS committee as Eskom is of the opinion it is correctly interpreting NRS048-9 and that it therefore cannot do anything about Frankfort’s challenge, although they “understand the frustrations”.
Eskom has unfortunately refused to discuss the contents of their press release which does not seem to hold water, https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/489493-frankfort-switches-off-solar-panels-after-eskom-blocks-them-from-cutting-load-shedding.html
Eskom is currently not in favour of any efforts made to reduce the duration of power cuts by municipalities and communities UNLESS the user can switch off the Eskom supply in total and provide full power from elsewhere - which seems to be a very high-handed and uninterested approach when dealing with the majority of communities which are financially challenged - especially in light of the fact that there is a demonstrated alternative which can bring near immediate relief to all, like voiding.
Surely rules are written by people to serve the people. If Eskom knows of everyone’s frustrations as they indicated in the meeting, then why are they not participating in the engineering solutions allowed within the regulations? Or, why are they not doing something about changing the understanding of those rules which discriminate against the positive efforts of communities even though Eskom’s income will be reduced…? Is it about SA Inc or Eskom?
The laws of physics are not subject to the laws of man. The ultimate solutions will come from people that understand:
Total Load must equal Total Supply. To reduce power cuts, we need NEW GENERATION CAPACITY NOW - not hide behind an interpretation of the regulations, which limits the involvement of willing communities to provide relief.
All supporting documentation is available below.
Your’s truly,
Chris
& the Rural Team
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