South Africa has been going through a long period of unreliable grid electrcity supply, the result of two main factors.

The first is the decline of Eskom, the state owned power utility, that was once regarded as the best of its kind in the world. Under the ANC government, Eskom has been plundered, millions of Rand has been stolen, and many staff positions (but not all) have been filled by political appointees who lack the skills and experience to do their job properly.

The second issue is the decline of electrcity departments at municipal level. In many cases infrastructure has been allowed to deteriorate, cables are stolen and transformers are vandalised; again political appointees are not doing their jobs properly. A couple of municipaliities have some small generation capability, but the majority buy electrcity in bulk from Eskom and sell it on to their customers (with a mark-up). Eskom’s rotational electrcity cuts (‘load-shedding’) therefore affect all municipal customers as well.

We have been active in supplying good quality hybrid inverters to clients to assist them in getting thrugh periods of power cuts. Further details are provided below.