There’s a very simple way to ease our electricity crisis – drastically reduce demand

Many useful points are made by the energy experts interviewed by Daily Maverick in the 22 September 2022 article, “Four energy experts tell us what needs to be done to end Eskom’s electricity crisis”.

However, in the energy discussions there is almost never mention of the huge potential that lies in REDUCING energy needs – through efficiency and conservation (which are different things).

This is the demand-side approach as opposed to today’s largely supply-side thinking. Research worldwide over the past 40 years has shown how we could fulfil all our needs with less than one quarter of today’s energy – with existing technologies, and often at a much lower cost than building new power stations.

Basically, energy efficiency means using more efficient technologies. Obviously this doesn’t help much if one then starts using the device twice as much – for example, driving your fuel-efficient car much more often, or buying an energy-efficient fridge that’s twice as large.

Energy conservation is about changing one’s habits and consumption, which also means directly saving money and resources. In many cases, it’s a simpler and healthier life.

Clearly, fossil fuels are with us for some time to come, like it or not, especially in poorer countries such as South Africa where coal is abundant, or Malaysia which has gas resources. Renewables, which are inevitably the future, will take time – but are taking much longer than necessary.

With the exception of (also neglected) biomass energy, they do not provide base-load power, but they can still cover a large part of demand. That wind and solar are seasonal is not a major obstacle. (Debates about base load versus renewables are pointless, we obviously need both).

Uranium is, like oil, a limited resource; building nuclear takes far too long. And nuclear is, simply, one of the most expensive options, so why on Earth choose that? Nuclear also bears some ugly risks, but the biggest risk – in this country – is incompetent or corrupt procurement and management.

You can’t afford shoddy welding or mistakes with a nuclear reactor.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “As SA teeters on the brink of full-blown energy disaster, it’s vital the right decisions are made – now”

Today’s situation is the fully foreseeable result of a complete lack of energy planning, plus incompetence and corruption by the ANC governments, including today’s energy ministry, and the present Eskom management bears little, if any, of the blame.

One of the major advantages of demand reduction is geopolitical; lower demand simply means less reliance on Russia or the Middle East or anybody else. On the individual level it means less dependence on Eskom or even on solar panels.

If we convert energy into units of human work, the modern, relatively well-off family uses the equivalent of about 200 slaves, so hooked are we on energy. Not forgetting that the poor need more, not less energy, in future, the amount needed to cover at least basic needs is small – a light bulb, a fridge, a hotplate – the essential services for human well-being which the ANC completely fails to deliver. The poor are not the ones responsible for high energy consumption.