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Sandton – Smart grids would create load management, where Eskom could manually turn off all pool pumps instead of load shedding, said former Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga.
Maroga was a panelist discussing "smart grids" at the Africa Energy Indaba on Wednesday, where he told delegates that if Eskom could go back in history and had called for 12 IPP plants instead of the two massive power plants, perhaps the country would be in a different scenario right now.
He spoke to Fin24 about the topic, as well as looking back at the history of Eskom and how it could climb out of its current predicament. (You can listen to the full interview below.)
A smart grid for load shedding
“If you make meters intelligent (which can identify different appliances) … and can be controlled remotely, what we’re doing as load shedding now could be done differently,” he said. “If we’ve got [a] smart grid, systems op control is able to press the button and just switch off all pool pumps.
“I’m sure we could go a long way without load shedding,” he said. “Then the next switch off could be geysers. So if you have smart technology that can go into commercial and residential and can discriminate between different appliances, you could do load shedding differently, without much disruption.
“I think over time, we will evolve there,” he said. “It will be called load management as opposed to load shedding.”
“Those technologies are already there,” he said.
Shopping centres and business offices could roll out this technology in the next few months, he said.
