SA's top energy users cut down

Cape Town - South Africa's heaviest industrial energy users have managed to collectively cut down, on average, 10% of electricity use since 2005, the energy minister said on Thursday.

Africa's strongest economy is battling a chronic power shortage and has been rationing power to users since the national grid almost collapsed last year, forcing mines and smelters to close and costing the country billions of rands.

Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said the savings came after a voluntary energy efficiency accord was signed in 2005 with over 10 key industrial companies identified as intensive electricity users, including Sasol, Eskom and BHP Billiton.

"And they have collectively reduced their consumption by an average 10 percent over the past four years," Peters said in a written response to a question.

South African power utility Eskom is struggling to ramp up enough power in the face of accelerated demand, as a global credit crunch curbs an ambitious R385bn expansion plan to boost power.

Eskom said that even with the expansion it would not be able to meet all of South Africa's projected demand and would count on efficiency steps to help ease supply pressures.

Peters said the voluntary energy efficiency pact provided the basis for a broader programme targeting 10% reduction in energy use, specifically looking at industrial consumers that use in excess of 100 GWh per year.

She said licensed distributors had also made successful interventions by replacing incandescent light with energy efficient bulbs, with each swap saving on average 40 Watts.

"To date over 30 million lamps have been replaced under such programmes," she said.

- Reuters