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Once the highly infrastructure developed economic powerhouse of Africa, South Africans these days are more interested in the outlook for rolling blackouts. The country’s most-downloaded app provides schedules, alerts and forecasts for power outages.
Eskom, the state power monopoly, is struggling to generate enough electricity to meet needs, and has re-introduced a byzantine system of rotating outages known as “load-shedding.” On February 11th a whopping 4,000 megawatts of power, enough to power some 3m households, was cut from the national grid to prevent it from collapsing. Some businesses have bought generators and battery systems; others close during outages. In big cities, there is chaos at rush hour as traffic lights go dark. The blackouts suit copper-cable thieves, who can steal without fear of electrocution. And when the electricity is switched backed on, substations sometimes explode, resulting in secondary outages.
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2019/02/21/why-the-lights-keep-going-out-in-south-africa
[paywall: you can see the whole article in 'anonymous view' through startpage.com]
More on the situation:
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/267263-south-africas-electricity-system-is-falling-apart-and-it-is-much-bigger-than-just-eskom.html
How to bring back the lights in South Africa?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:36AM (2 children)
Or you could just figure out how to use less power at a time when supply has serious trouble keeping up with demand.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @03:06AM (1 child)
Is that an obvious rebuttal or did you just confirm that capitalism requires large numbers of people to have sleep schedules that are completely at odds with human need?
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday April 24 2019, @08:04AM
It is not a ridiculous proposal. I can set the washing machine and dishwasher to switch on during the night to benefit from cheaper electricity. And it is cheaper because the utility companies want to encourage us to use power when the demand is low. My hot water for the following day is heated during the night - it will top up if necessary during the following day but that is rarely required. Electric cars (not that I own one) can be charged overnight. That is part of the reason that they are ecologically better for us and they will be more economic when sufficient numbers are in use to cause the purchase price to drop.
None of these require me to change my sleep cycle.