South Africa's Load Shedding

Things are moving along, though at a slow pace due to my regular schoolwork, on plans for my trip.

I got my passport about a week ago, and I'm now fully immunized for what is recommended for people staying in South Africa. Luckily, I avoided having to get some of them because I will be in Cape Town (where malaria isn't a problem) and because I'll be in urban areas, as compared to rural ones. More precautions have to be taken if traveling to rural areas, but Cape Town sees a lot of tourism, and I feel confident that if something were to come up, I could deal with it there.

I met with Ozayr this week who was helpful in creating a list of things I have to do/buy/think about before my trip. He suggested getting an ISIC card, which is for students traveling internationally, that offers good discounts at things like hostels and restaurants. I looked up the discounts offered for Cape Town and found some ones that I will probably be taking advantage of while there.

I also met with Myron Orfield from the Law School. He also gave me a good list of things to think about, especially relating to private vs. public efforts to deal with racial segregation in Cape Town. The issues he raised will be good things to talk about with University of Cape Town professors and government officials while I'm there.

I've taken to reading South African and Cape Town news online. It's kinda scary, things I read, but I take into account that of course the bad stuff is going to make the headlines, just like here. Besides, a lot of what you read about there - robberies, break-ins, murders - goes on up here in the Cities, and some of it even on campus. I'd say at least once a month we get an e-mail from the U reporting a crime on campus, usually an armed robbery of a student at wee hours of the morning. I mean, I guess it goes to show that you can find crime anywhere; you just have to be careful and use common sense to avoid those situations.

One thing that I've been reading about has been the nation's electric load-shedding. For thosewho don't know what that means (I didn't until I researched it), load-shedding is the power companies' way of dealing with increased electrical demand while not having enough resources. Instead of having to build a new plant just to handle the peak hours, the power to certain portions is cut. Basically, certain parts of the electrical grid are literally switched off for portions of the day - those portions don't have power at all during the switch-off. Usually it's about a span of 2-4 hours, during the middle of the day when power demands are highest, and it's usually planned ahead of time so the residents are aware. However, I've heard that reports are often incorrect or aren't released until the load-shedding has already started. Places like telecommunications companies, financial institutions, and hospitals generally have their own back-up supplies of power.

The frequency of load-shedding has picked up since January. I believe I read that Johannesburg (the economic capital of the nation) generally has switch-offs of 2 hours, three times a week. Eskom, the power company that supplies 96% of South Africa's power, doesn't see a true end to load-shedding until 2010, when it plans to have enough new power plants built, but there is speculation that the company won't even be able to make it that far. The company blames the federal government of South Africa for Eskom's inability to keep up with demand because the government has not offered funding.

Currently, work is under way in several of South Africa's townships (shanty-towns) which I will be studying during my trip to supply power to the homes there. Eskom and the government claim that the power troubles plaguing the nation now will not interfere with that electrification. In my opinion, it should not, because I'm sure that the electricity the townships use is minimal compared to the rest of the country. These are very poor citizens: they don't have things like refrigerators or air conditioners, things that drive up electricity consumption. They definitely don't have these things now, because they have no way to power them with electricity. And I don't expect that suddenly having electricity would cause many of them to acquire these appliances, simply because they can't afford them.

Something I found interesting regarding the load-shedding is that South Africa is the 6th-richest nation in the world in terms of coal reserves. However, it exports its best coal and only uses lower-quality coal for its own purposes. That's hard to understand for me, being from the US, where we certainly keep the best of everything we produce for ourselves. Also, South Africa has no plans to switch to other more efficient forms of fuel just because it expects its coal supply to last at least another 200 years. This is interesting to me because of the whole coal debate - coal is the dirtiest fuel typically used for energy production. I wonder how SA's strict dependence and reliance on coal will pan out in a world where clean fuel initiatives are constantly increasing. Finally, load-shedding has impacted South Africa's economic viability quite extensively. The mines there, especially in Johannesburg, which was founded on gold mining, have suffered because they're frequently unable to extract due to a lack of power. This has helped to drive up the value of precious metals, such as gold and platinum. Here in the US, the skyrocketing price of platinum has increased the theft of catalytic converters from vehicles. The platinum found in these necessary car components is worth about $100-200, and thieves are stealing them to sell to scrap collectors. It's really interesting to me how electricity problems in SA are increased petty theft here. It really goes to show just how globalized the world really has become.

I want to buy my flight tickets ASAP, but I keep putting it off because I never know when it is really the "best" price. It's kinda like buying a house or stock - you never know if this is the best price you're going to get or if it will get lower. Also this weekend I need to put together a more detailed itinerary, day-by-day: what I'm going to be doing, and where and when I'm going to be doing it. It's going to be a lot of work but it should be good to get a better idea of where I'm staying and where I'm going to be doing my research during my trip.

On that note, I should probably get to homework. Lots of it this weekend. Thanks for reading, and as usual, feel free to contact me about any of this. Thanks!

Really?

So this is what waits for me on my Google homepage today....Really?



I'd write more but things are crazy busy this week... as usual. Updates soon!