Rolling blackouts signal disaster for mobile operator networks and puts a damper in innovative forms of work

The intensity of rolling blackouts, which signals an ever-widening power crisis, is now accompanied by mounting feelings of dread. 

Previous bouts of rolling blackouts elicited frustration and anger, but nothing like the current sense of foreboding that the crisis is far worse than we know.

Covid and the subsequent enforced disruptions to segments of the economy – the rise of working from home, redundant workers becoming solopreneurs, digital nomadism and the like – add another layer of complexity to the issue.

Almost three years ago, peak-hour load shedding would occur while most people were at the office. The lights would go out. A few minutes later, the lights would be on again and computer screens would flicker back to life, thanks to workplace generators.

By the time the scheduled blackouts were over, most workers would be home preparing dinner and getting on with life. However, this scenario no longer applies to present-day realities.

Now, when the lights go out, the work stops. Work and life come to a standstill. Power surges frazzle electronic equipment, the Wi-Fi dies, along with inverter batteries, and laptop batteries struggle with erratic charging. Mobile network signals disappear from cellphone screens.

The inconvenience factor has not only multiplied, but it is also amplified by the domino effect rolling blackouts have on work and life in general.

For an operator like Vodacom, rolling blackouts are simply “a disaster”, Group CEO Shameel Joosub said in a recent interview.

“The havoc it plays on our network is huge,” he said.

Over the past two years, Vodacom has spent R2-billion on back-up batteries and generators. The company has installed batteries at all its sites, and ramped up the number of batteries in stock. 

But that’s one aspect of the complicated equation. The current rolling blackouts have coincided with a spike in theft of back-up batteries, according to Joosub.   

“Eight hours of blackouts – it’s a disaster. The batteries don’t get a chance to recharge,” Joosub said. “It’s disruptive when it comes out of nowhere.”

There’s a cap on the number of generators Vodacom can operate – running 15,000 generators is just not feasible.  

Faced with that dilemma, “what you then need to do is … [choose] hub sites”, Joosub says.

Simply put, Vodacom staggers the network to re-energise its back-up power sources to keep coverage going, even when the power dies for up to eight hours.

Said Joosub: “If there are three sites in an area, you have to go for the one with the wireless coverage. You move that one to eight hours, then the others to six and … [the rest] to four [hours]. You have to tier it.”