Well the Powers gone, Our first load shedding in action, I closed the store, and sent the staff home till 17h00, It's nice and quiet, no humming of the motors and fans, I am lucky to have 2hrs of power on my laptop..... quiet time.... a sign of things to come, we should have a genset for the store in 3 months....
You're not joking ???
Can't believe this.
Well Oranjemunders do not like change, I extended the shop hours from 18h00 till 20h00 to make up for the lost hours in trade today... they all swarmed in here at 17h00 and the place was empty after 18h13........
this power thing is gonna give me gray hair....
We can start a fund for candles for you and send over used AA Eveready batteries!
Mike while your power was off and you where enjoying the total silence I was monitoring the load we reduced to assist eskom, it's quite amazing how silent it is when the transformers are off all 30 not humming all day long I wish somebody will teach them the words to the songs
I spoke to Ol' Wolfie and I see we achived our 10% reduction, so no load shedding!\\
Just to let those of you that are interested to know what is happening with the power situation in Omund..... We were having terrible Power Cuts, 5 hours a day at one stage..... Anyhow, ESKOM asked Namdeb to cut back on their consumption by 10% and thus avoid total power outages, So it seems like the easiest way to reach this goal, was to shut down 4 Plant, about 60% of the workforce are on contract, which will more than likely not be renewed, the other Old timers in the 40% will be offered retrenchments packages with the remaining being moved elsewhere on the mine..... thus NAMDEB gets to use ESKOM as the catalyst to retrench and to save face whilst shutting down a loss making plant.....
Namdeb at the moment will not be having power outages as they are attaining their power consumption target..... with plans afoot to activate the power saving gizmo on all the geysers in town.... I also see the XMAS lights were eventually switched off on Friday and I heard a rumour that energy saving bulbs are gonna be installed in all company buildings.....
Power to the People
Mike.....sorry to ask this but i dont always get to read every thing thats written on here......why are all the power cut taking place.......do you have any wind farms there ....and do they have solar panels ect ect.......cause its the perfect place for wind/solar fuel...you shouldnt need anything else for all you electric....look at the power in the waves you have...thats what every country should be doing now........but its so expensive to set up........but cant believe your having power cuts when you have all the right elements for other things.
idontknow
Hi Bev, the power cuts are happening for two reasons.... (1) Mismanagement by the top dogs and the ANC over at ESKOM, who thought it would be clever not to build new power stations 7 years ago, when they were told to.... (2) Affirmative action in South Africa chased away a lot of highly skilled people and replaced them with ignorant under experienced people with dubious qualifications..... now they are blaming the rain and old equipment for the failures....
No, there is no solar,no wind farms..... plenty of talk.....about it... a germany company put up a test wind turbine at Walvis.....but one day the wind did not blow and a thief came along and stole the panels and generator.... the Australians are pushing for wave generation at Luderitz......
Namibia has the 5th brightest sunshine in the world..... we could build the largest solar array in the world here, create jobs and power africa from here..... Nobody else seems to see this......
The government has requested that we do not refer to blackouts; "they are previous lit areas"!
Bad news and good news from Eskom
Bad news - the poo has hit the fan
Good news - the fan was switched off
Cherry and Alfred. You guys are great...
:emot19:
We're all in the same boat,may as well have a good laugh. SMS doing the rounds :
Our Father who art in Eskom,
Powerless be thy name,
Thy kingdom badly run,
Thy power undone,
In Jo'burg as it is in KZN & CT
Give us this day our half-baked bread,
And forgive the trespassers who shoot us dead,
Lead me not into a dark nation,
But deliver me from load shedding.
For thou have no kingdom, no power and no electricity
Forever and ever.
AMEN
BLACKOUT
:36_2_35:
At least the power has not been switched off anymore here in Omund...looks like the company is managing to keep below the 90% mark asked by ESKOM.... but wait for winter..... meanpuff
Only just but but we are trying to keep it down
I'm an Energy Consultant, hoolahoop1 I work for a german company too E.ON...wonder if it was 1 of our wind turbines, cause i have heard talk of plans to go into africa.........oh i hope so......i can get a transfere lol.........i love to see wind farms....i cant understand all the people who object to them......and with all the coast line most countries have ....putting them out to see would be ideal...they wouldnt been seen........expensive yes........but its gona have to happen sooner or later..........we waste so much energy...
Im from a coal mining village....as most of the villages in yorkshire were, all but a very few have long gone........not a bad thing for the people who had ever worked in these places...but it shows...these things do run out eventually.......and we have just had yet another increase in the price of our gas and electric with the average home spending around £1000 per year ...we should all have windmills on our roofs and solar panels.....and all new build homes should be made with all these things in place......
Hi Bev.
You mention ed people spending up to about 1000pound per annum. Is this only for electricity?
We need about 3500 liter of oil for heating and warm water. It's getting less, as our kids are leaving home. We pay between 45 - 6o Eurocent per liter.
Then comes water and electricity....
Gee!... now let me work out how much we spent on energy last year living in Oumnd..... :emot19:
Sometimes it's nice living here still.....
Paying your rent isn't cheap either. It's normel to pay 7,50€ per square meter living in a flat with 80 square meters.
On an average you earn about 1500 - 2200€ netto a month. At least the papers said so the other day.
Ouch! that brings us back to the point florrie made.... our standard of living is still high... even if the standards of the majority around you is'nt....
We're all living well.
Hardly inflation. My job is sure. Good social security. Still quite good pentions. No fees for the doc. Low prices on med. and so .....
Doctors.... I've heard of those, we used to have those here also at one time.... laughpoint
If your sick, you go to the doc and he gives you sick leave from work. You still get paid...
I had a chat the other day with one of the docs about this sick note thing.... he was telling me that they (the docs) know that the guys are not sick, but there is nothing they can do about it and they have to book the guys off, especially on Mondays and Fridays..... now HR has asked for these repeat offender's names , as they are no longer an asset to the company... and will be top off the chop list when it;s time to downscale on the mine.....
Our electricity alone costs about R1200/month. Heard a chat on the radio, the economist said the only way to solve the power problem is to increase its cost by at least 50 percent, it will have less effect on the economy than powercuts. I suppose people would use it more sparingly and still carry on with production. Makes sense but not a nice prospect for us that have quite a high electricity bill already.
Doctors are in a difficult position when asked for fake sick letters. The work should be able to see from their leave records who are repeat offenders. Some people feel that because they are entitled to 36 days sick leave per 3 year cycle,they should take it whether they are really sick or not. Like those using business phones for private use etc., they don't realise that it basically comes down to stealing from the company. Generally in SA people don't give good service, they do their jobs just to get their salaries and put in the minimum effort required. In afrikaans we call them "suurstofdiewe". There are so many people in the wrong careers. Very few service orientated people in the jobs where you are in contact with the public.
Service levels all over SOuthern Africa are up the pole..... even here at Spar, I had a few customers who had problems this week.... A lady had some overseas people coming to styay and ordered a platter form our fast food , when she got there, there was no platter ... on asking the masses bhind the counters, they all shrugged their shoulders... and started to converse with each other in Oshiwambo.... frustrated, she came to me.... I sent her home and told her that i waould send the platter to her house in 30 minutes, free of charge, I went to the chap responsible, who's nickname is smiley, for obvious reasons, lost my temper with him, pointed to the entry in the order book, asked him where the platter was, NO Platter, why did'nt you make it?, He did'nt see the order he reckons...there were only 4 items for him to make the whole day, I screamed at him, threw the book on the floor, warning time, you will make that platter in 20 minutes..... and stormed outta there..... smiley lost his smile, I lost my temper and spar lost a customer...... Now, the point of the story..... If the government stopped telling me who I could employ in the shop with their AA policy, I could employ a Big strict Afrikaans tannie at my counters..... and thing s would change..... tha same goes for the butchery and various other spots in the shop where, I would like to employ a few key people , who happen to be white, but I cannot.....not allowed to....thus the service levels fall...... whenever I do find a good previously disadvantaged person (AA) they stay with us for 3 months and move on to a better paying job with the mine..... Begs the question... why 17 years after independence, a generation has passed yet we are still playing with this AA shit that is only doing more damage to the economy than good........ Grrrrr!
17 years already? Time flies when you are having fun. I get p.....-off about kids not being able to get jobs today because of affirmative action. The day Terrick started school, non-white kids were allowed at the school. The white kids of his time haven't had any more priviledges than the non-white kids but aren't given a fair chance to get a job. Why must the children suffer for the sins of the parents? Generally, the non-whites prefer office jobs, luckily my son chose a profession that few want to do, plumbing and then started his own company. Nowadays, parents have to create businesses or opportunities for their children, just giving them a good education is no longer a guarantee that they will find employment.
Bev, There are some wind turbines being tested but they only ever seem to run one at a time and even that very infrequently.
We were talking at work the otherday and some of the chaps have worked on the coal mines, they were saying SA has been exporting coal and getting a betterprice for it than if they kept supplying the Powerstations. The stockpiles of coal at four or more powerstations is severly limited and this can be seen on footage taken by our Cart Blanch team of reporters.
Officials refised to comment but its obvious, someone has been making big bucks while the coal supply to the plants has been dwindeling and their pockets being fattened.
Hi Clive...yes can believe that about the coal.....as you say some people are making too much money to stop these things happening.......
Hi george...£1000 is the avarage spend per annum on gas and electric for a 3 bedroomed house with the average family..........some people spend double that....but thats an average....also most peoples electric bills are now higher than the gas....used to be the other way round untill the last couple of years....household fuel prices have almost doubled in the last 3 years.....our govement gives pensioner £200 per year towards the cost of the fuel.....it goes up to £300 for some.....this used to almost cover the whole years bills for some....now it wouldnt even cover 3 months usage for most..........
we should all be doing our own bit for future preservation of our world....
We have a bigger problem here in yorkshire with .....water shortages :emot19: which is craaaazy...with all the rain we get here we should have all the water we need all year round.......but first its hose pipe bans...no gardening allowed....no washing your car......but you still see people doing all these things saying........i pay for it so ill use it.........we all have to pay water rates over here ......some have water meters and pay for what they use....others pay a set rate regardless......but if the water companies spent money in the right areas...we should never run out of water.
one thing that really has started to annoy me is when i see people running round in their big 4x4's taking the kids 100 meters to school....to me this does not say ...hey look im rich..i have big car...it just says to me....hey look at me ...i dont care about the future of our world :36_2_24:
... and this is what makes it worthwhile living in this part of the desert, the only water shortages we get, is when the pipe burst..... water costs nothing and the power is still free...... and if you own a 4x4 here, there must be a reason to use it, though quad bikes are all the rage these days....
It's almost a necessity to have a 4X4 in SA due to the bad state of our roads. Check on the keyboard what is above the 4. If you accidentally press the shift key you get $X$.
Good point.... allgood
must re read what i put on these posts in future before i go to bed........i have just deleted what i originally wrote on here due to the fact that when i re read t the next day i couldnt believe what a load of B****** it was.......I didnt even know what I was talking about .never mind anyone who might be reading it....so sorry about that bling1
You see Bev, it's dangerous to drink and surf at the same time, kinda like being drunk in public, be careful the board does'nt hit you on the head... :emot19:
:emot112: too :emot19: late.....!!!!!!!!