THE National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM) has urged all electricity users to adopt energy saving as a lifestyle as the country continues to grapple with an energy crisis.
The committee which was established by the Presidency to address the immediate electricity supply shortfall and bring an end to loadshedding, made the call during its 4th Demand Side Management Indaba, which was hosted by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. This comes as the country has not experienced loadshedding for around three months, thanks to various strategies implemented by the Government and its private partners.
During the first day of the Indaba held at the Boardwalk International Convention Centre in Gqeberha, NECOM chairperson, Rudi Dicks said the country was not out of the woods yet and Eskom needed all electricity users to adopt an energy-saving approach.
“Even as loadshedding is reduced, we can’t let down our guard, more work is required to ensure that we achieve energy security in the long term. Twenty-two months of implementation have brought to the fore new priorities as earlier ones have been resolved as well as several ‘sticky problems’ that persist. The Demand Side Management Indaba is focusing on lowering usage for industrial users, firms and domestic users and this is important because we are not out of the woods yet.”
“We are on a good roll, we have just under 90 days of no loadshedding, but we still have to reduce our demand. We are in the first month of winter, there are two months ahead still, so promoting responsible usage, introducing technologies, switching off the geyser and smart metering are all important parts of reducing your demand as customers. It is certainly an important part of the overall ability for us to be able to stabilise the grid, reduce the demand and to ensure that we eventually end loadshedding,” Dicks said.
As executive mayor, Gary van Niekerk welcomed the delegates to the Indaba, he said NMBM would continuously implement demand management and distribution demand management projects in an effort to align with the national energy saving initiatives. The Indaba concluded on Friday, 28 June 2024 with Eskom’s demand management incentive programmes being discussed in an effort to encourage more customers to take advantage of all the incentives available for energy saving.
