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69_queefs_per_sec t1_j5jqa6o wrote

Reply to comment by rafdotcom in Nearly 220 million people in Pakistan without power after countrywide outage | CNN Business by calbert1735

Fucking hell, and I got mad when the power went out for 30 minutes yesterday in Bangalore (there's a diesel generator so honestly it wasn't even an issue). I can't imagine life in SA. Such a beautiful country deserves better.

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ExchangeKooky8166 t1_j5k3p8a wrote

South Africa is that way because the African National Congress has been laughably corrupt and incompetent since Mandela left office in 1999.

Tragic tale of a country. Without Mandela, South Africa would have probably collapsed economically and then into an awful civil war. However, there was no strong leader after him to keep the economic and social progress that was gained from 1995-2007.

No, this isn't apartheid apologism. The National Party were just as shitty and apartheid is responsible for many long-term social issues in South Africa. The ANC just make it worse.

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Speculawyer t1_j5kojc7 wrote

Eskom is a mess. It is so coal dependent and coal is expensive. But they don't seem to have the money or willpower to switch from coal to solar PV and wind.

And now I presume a lot of wealthy people are switching to battery backed solar PV so you get the utility death spiral.

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RansomStark78 t1_j5lj2fb wrote

Everything else you mentioned costs more per kwh than coal

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RansomStark78 t1_j5lplc1 wrote

Link to a article that does not factor in USA specific subsides

I don't think rsa gets us money as subsides

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Speculawyer t1_j5ls9vi wrote

This article covers UNSUBSIDIZED prices (see first graph). When subsidized, it is so cheap that it causes existing plants to close down (second graph).

https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-levelized-cost-of-storage-and-levelized-cost-of-hydrogen/

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RansomStark78 t1_j5lvezo wrote

You mention that wealthy rsa citizens are switching to solar and t his will lead to failure of the national power producer

I googled there are only 400 000 za citizens that make above 1 000 000 zar as per za tax stat

1000000 at xe rate is approx 60 000 usd

There are approx 60-80 mil ppl in rsa

How does 400 000 (possibly half that in number households given that higher in comers earners marry other higher incomes earners)

Result in a income deficit enough to cause the power utility to go into red

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RansomStark78 t1_j5lx9qa wrote

A 15 min google search

Za current renewables are at r 2,02 kwh ( 2012)

15 year life span

but customers are paying r1, 62per kwh

So coal must be cheaper than renewables

Also most heavy users are in the north most energy renewables are in the south

Za do not have transmission capacity to take the power to the north so having more renewables will not help

Apparently transmission capacity is at 100% in the south

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