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My Own Power Station 23 February 2023

Loadshedding sll catches me out somemes.

I suppose it was the long snt at Noetzie with solar power that made me less aware of the electricity crisis. (Viva solar power, viva!)

Back in Cape Town we were watching television, deeply engrossed in a movie about World War 1, with women ambulance drivers dodging bullets and explosions, the cries of wounded soldiers and gunfire, stretcher bearers running with bloodied bodies, while the enemy advanced.

Me bing my nails thinking: “Hurry guys, hurry!”

Then suddenly boom, everything went black. Not on the balefront, but in my sing room.

Ruddy loadshedding.

Now, before my sister Julie gave me a wonderful birthday present, I would have just got out the candles and camping lamps and accepted it. Tough about being cut off from a gripping movie.

But not anymore. I am now the proud owner of a portable power staon. I just love it.

Aer the movie stopped, I carried my power staon to the sing room by torchlight, got the extension cord and plugged in a couple of lamps, the Wi-Fi and the TV, and carried on watching the gripping movie.

How cool is that!

The next morning when the rolling blackouts hit us again, I used it to power my laptop and charge my phone.

Normally journalists never menon trade names, but as no ethical lines will be crossed because I do not benefit from menoning it, I will tell you: it is an EcoFlow River Pro, with a built in smart inverter When the power comes on again, I recharge it from a wall plug.

It takes 2 hours to charge from zero to 100% and one hour from zero to 80%. And you can buy solar panels to charge it too.

It has an output of 600W, so no, you cannot use it for your kele or microwave, but it will give you light – in several rooms if you have extension cords – Wi-Fi, TV, and can power or charge a whole lot of devices.

It is expensive, so not a soluon for most South Africans. I am lucky to have a very generous sister stoepchat@actionads.co.za

This energy crisis is a crying shame. People blame Eskom, but Eskom warned the government in the late 1990s that electricity demand would outstrip supply by the mid 2000s – and it did.

The government should hang its head in shame that it chose to ignore Eskom’s warning.

What the government did do right was to launch a progressive renewable energy programme in 2011.

I remember a CSIR report in 2014 found that the fledgling renewable energy industry had saved the country R4bn in the first six months of 2014. This was in the saved cost of diesel and coal that Eskom did not have to burn, and the saving to the economy of avoiding load shedding.

The renewable energy programme ground to a halt with state capture and corrupon.

Renewable energy is slowly clawing its way back, but imagine where we would be today if those corrupt looters had not got a grip on Eskom?

A phone alert has just said I have 55 minutes unl the next black out.

Time to set up my lile power staon again.

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