Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

The Lights Keep Going out in South Africa

posted by martyb on Tuesday April 23 2019, @11:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the there's-an-app-for-that! dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

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?

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Lights Keep Going out in South Africa | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 101 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Wednesday April 24 2019, @07:39AM (2 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday April 24 2019, @07:39AM (#834254) Journal

    Actually, Trump was all but exonerated of any wrong doing.

    An interesting case of accidentally saying the truth due to a lack of understanding of the peculiarities of the English language. ;-)

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/all%20but [merriam-webster.com]

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=1, Informative=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   4  

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 24 2019, @01:22PM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 24 2019, @01:22PM (#834318) Journal

    Well, Trump can't be completely exonerated. He's been a douche for decades, after all. But, you can't send a guy to prison because he's a douche, can you?

    • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:38PM

      by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 24 2019, @02:38PM (#834352)

      you can't send a guy to prison because he's a douche, can you?

      Part of me wishes that were true... though I think 10 lashes would be more effective.

      --
      The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.