Load shedding continues to wreak havoc across sectors leaving a path of economic destruction in its wake.
This comes on the back of a difficult two and a half years following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Local businesses say they are unable to cope with the continuous load shedding.
Naeem Hussain, owner of Grill Father Woodstock, says his restaurant is suffering.
“It is really bad. Honestly speaking, in the next two months we are going to make some hard decisions. It is not what we want obviously, but it has affected us to a point where we can’t help ourselves anymore. There is nothing we can do, and we need to deal with it.”
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Hussain says the financial implications are devastating.
“It is absolute madness, there is nothing we can do to come back from this. We survived Covid-19 miraculously, but this is something I don’t think we can come back from.”
Siobhan O’Sullivan, Managing Executive, HPC, Group Strategy and Marketing for Premier, says the ongoing and extended load shedding is negatively impacting production and contributing to further cost increases in the food industry.
Premier produces and markets South African brands such as Snowflake, Blue Ribbon, BB Bakeries, Star, Mister Bread, Iwisa, Nyala, Mister Sweet, Champion, Rascals, Frutus, Lil-lets, Vulco & Dove cotton wool.
O’Sullivan says: “In our day-to-day operations, we are mindful of the importance of our products in the staple foods basket and we continuously do what we can to ensure continuity of supply and minimise the impact of cost increases to the end consumer.”
O’Sullivan says in the past two years, critical inputs such as fertiliser, fuel, freight and critical imported grains had experienced cost increases following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Commodity prices including wheat, oil, fuel and fertiliser have also increased following Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. This has impacted food security for many in the country.
“The municipal infrastructure crisis, in particular load shedding and water shedding, is having a detrimental impact on South African manufacturing operations resulting in reduced outputs and increased costs of production.”
He says Premier has invested in alternative energy and water supply where possible, for business continuity. He adds that the power required to continue production in some of their manufacturing operations exceeds the capabilities of alternative energy sources.
The South African employees and consumers are bearing the brunt of these global and local pressures with household food inflation at 9% and an estimated 46% of the population receiving grants.
Kobus Gertenbach, Chief Executive Officer for Premier, says: “Food safety and security remains a priority for Premier. Premier remains committed to building the local economy by working with local business and government to ensure business continuity.”
Last week, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis detailed the City of Cape Town’s three-phase procurement for load shedding protection.
Addressing the council, Hill-Lewis said the aim is to provide protection from the first four stages of Eskom’s load,shedding within three years.
According to Hill-Lewis, two major tenders have already been issued, have closed, and are in assessment phase; with the third and biggest one to be issued in a matter of weeks.
“We have already made much progress on the first of our three-phase procurement for load shedding protection, with a 200 MW procurement of renewable energy concluded last year. Tenders are to be awarded in the coming months, with the procurement now in the evaluation phase of technical proposals received from IPPs.”
The mayor further confirmed that the City is working with the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on grid integration studies to determine when and where these IPPs will feed power into Cape Town’s grid.
He says the second of the three-phase procurement for load shedding protection takes the form of their power heroes programme.
“The initiative is based on paying residents incentives for voluntary energy savings, which will entail automated remote switching off of power-intensive devices at peak times. The “demand response tender” for this programme, launched in October last year, is currently in the evaluation phase, and will also be awarded within the coming months.”
Hill-Lewis says the third phase of procurement will be launched next month.
This will take the form of a Dispatchable Energy tender, expected to yield around 500 MW for the grid.
“This tender will not only focus on renewable energy, as the first phase of our Load shedding Protection Plan, but will include all-important dispatchable technologies, such as battery storage and gas to power. These power sources need to generate power for a significant portion of the day to support our load shedding protection efforts.”
He says these dispatchable supply sources need not be located in a City-supply area.
“We are expecting enough progress on this three-Phase procurement – and our other deliverables – to provide at least four stages of load shedding protection within three years. Procuring 500 MW will go a long way to ending load shedding over time, given that a single load shedding stage requires the City to shutdown around 60 MW.”
