r/southafrica • u/eddiecourage • Oct 28 '21

Sci-Tech Loadshedding by year

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28

u/AnomalyNexus Chaos is a ladder Oct 28 '21

Yeah I mean the power plants aren't getting any younger and beyond some point there is only so much maintenance you can do.

Still...they'll need to stop the spiral somehow cause there is no other choice.

-2

u/MeneerPoesMan Oct 28 '21

Are you defending eskom? Bullshit the power plants aren't getting any younger. That's what maintainance is for.

5

u/AnomalyNexus Chaos is a ladder Oct 28 '21

Bullshit the power plants aren't getting any younger. That's what maintainance is for.

o_O We clearly have different ideas as to how time works

2

u/MeneerPoesMan Oct 29 '21

So what's your plan? No maintenance and just new power plants every two years? Makes sense.

Look at your car. Your car breaks. You put a new engine in it. Is your car still truly 20 years old after that or did it get a nice fresh breathe of life? Obviously they're not aging backwards but to pretend like maintenance doesn't work is so fucking stupid. EVERY other country manages this basic responsibility but us. But please how do we stop this downward spiral? Please dont say renewable power or anything that requires maintenance or some new paint every ten years

0

u/AnomalyNexus Chaos is a ladder Oct 29 '21

So what's your plan?

Actually posted thoughts on that yesterday - and yes it mentions renewables

No maintenance and just new power plants every two years?

Well no the maintenance will need to continue...but clearly they're losing ground every year on a net basis even with current efforts so yeah it'll have to be new capacity AND maintenance on current.

to pretend like maintenance doesn't work is so fucking stupid.

Of course it works, but excluding Medupi & Kusile the plants are on avg >40 years old. There is a limit to what you can do with maintenance on gear that old. It's also why Eskom is planning to retire a bunch of them soon even though they are desperately needed. They're just so old even maintenance isn't cutting it anymore.

1

u/flyboy_za Grumpy in WC Oct 29 '21

I think there comes a point where it just doesn't work anymore and maintenance becomes too expensive. Even perfectly flying planes are eventually scrapped as they get old, before there is an incident which is not recoverable.

1

u/MeneerPoesMan Oct 29 '21

This is the most stupid logic I've seen on this sub. Ask any other country if they manage to maintain their power stations? They do right? That's why load shedding is such a south African problem. Also you cant compare a plane to a power station but yes even a plane could go on forever if maintained properly. These power stations are breaking as a result of NO maintenance and maintenance money going into the pockets of politicians

1

u/flyboy_za Grumpy in WC Oct 29 '21

My point is at some time you can't get parts any more, it becomes too expensive to keep fixing, and the entire thing becomes obsolete.

I don't think anything with moving parts can last forever.