Well The Powers Gone!

[Michael Alexander]

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....

[georg ruf jr.]

You're not joking ???
Can't believe this.

[Michael Alexander]

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....

[Robert Bruce]

We can start a fund for candles for you and send over used AA Eveready batteries!

[Alfred Boehme]

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

[Michael Alexander]

I spoke to Ol' Wolfie and I see we achived our 10% reduction, so no load shedding!\\

[Michael Alexander]

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

[Bev Coates (Now Walker)]

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.

[Michael Alexander]

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......

[Cherry (Alcock)]

The government has requested that we do not refer to blackouts; "they are previous lit areas"!

[Alfred Boehme]

Bad news and good news from Eskom
Bad news - the poo has hit the fan
Good news - the fan was switched off

[georg ruf jr.]

Cherry and Alfred. You guys are great...
:emot19:

[Delia]

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

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

 :36_2_35:

[Michael Alexander]

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.....