Despite the great strides in increasing access to electricity in the last 25 years, electricity still remains an expensive and scarce household resource.
As such it is important for all South Africans to use electricity with care, sparingly and efficiently, Energy Minister Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday.
“Given our current energy availability challenges, it is also important for all of us to make our contribution to the effort to reduce consumption in order to reduce demand on the national grid and avoid load shedding.
“Above all, I also urge all of us to make sure that we pay for the electricity that we consume,” Radebe said.
He reminded households to switch off appliances when they are not in use. If the household is still using a standard non-Solar geyser, switch it off during the day and only switch it on in time to provide hot water for the family.
When you make tea – only boil enough water for that cup of tea.
The Minister went on to urge citizens to invest in energy efficient appliances like fridges, irons and kettles.
“During 2018 my department launched the Standards and Labelling campaign for appliances, so look out for the energy efficiency label when you buy a new appliance, and try to buy the most energy efficient one. It will save you money in the long run by using less power.”
The Minister was speaking in Walmer, Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan City.
He was in the community to hand over certificates to youth who successfully graduated from the Solar Water Heater (SWH) Installation Trainee Programme aimed at uplifting local unemployed young people through skills development.
The programme not only develops local skills for the unemployed but also gives an opportunity to local business who manufacture the systems as per the local content threshold of 70% on tanks, and 70% on collectors.
In implementing the Solar Water Heater model, Radebe said his department procured 87 206 Solar Water Heater Baseline Systems from 12 different suppliers located across five provinces.
He further assured the community that the national government continues to plan the stage of the energy transformation.
This plan, he said, involves proactive discussions to create new policies, regulations, market structures and industry strategies, particularly to support the stable integration of the highest possible shares of power generation from various renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
“This integration of Renewable Energy into the current power generation model is also a positive step in view of the demands placed on governments to make the required strides in reducing carbon emissions in the light of the climate change challenges that face humanity globally,” Radebe added
