JOBURG ENERGY: My City Power plan, from rechargeable lights to an inverter and now solar

SA’s unreliable electricity grid is pushing households towards solar, but this shift should be accelerated rather than be penalised. A consumer-focused solar strategy could modernise the grid, create jobs and help lower energy costs.

A few months ago, I wrote of my anger about the nation’s dysfunctional water situation . Unfortunately, things seem no better now than before.

Crucially, for some communities, it is probably even worse. Entire suburbs protest against the lack of measures to remedy things. Although government offices make promises and issue grand plans, for many, the pipes remain dry.

Soon, we’ll explore the worsening conditions of so many of our roads, despite the City’s inevitable pledges to fix them. Like so many others, my attention continues to be drawn to possible damage to our car, or worse, from potholes and broken-up road surfaces on routes I regularly travel – including roads just repaired and re-tarred! Next time.

But first, we contemplate our rickety electricity system. Back in those dark years of “load shedding”, many of us, as an evening began, could be heard cursing the darkness as we searched desperately for candles and matches.

(As an angry aside, why did we accept Eskom’s circumlocution, “load shedding”, rather than insist they call it what really was – power cuts. Load shedding sounded like such a benign thing, almost like a beautiful Persian cat shedding its thick winter fur to be comfortable in the summer.)

Like so many others, as the problem continued, in self-defence, we installed ugly rechargeable lights in strategic spots in the house so we wouldn’t fall down unseen steps late at night, bump into furniture, or trip over the cat in the dark and fracture a hip when we fell.

Like everyone else, we still had to eat, but takeaways or online delivery services were not always an option. So, in desperation, we purchased one of those compact gas camper stoves so we could at least heat water for coffee or tea, and cook some soup or reheat leftover stew or curry when the power vanished.

As the power cuts continued, we fought back. We purchased uninterrupted power sources and a bulky inverter so we could still watch television, have one or two lights on, access the internet and recharge phones and laptops.

But we also needed to illuminate the outside of the house in the stygian darkness (the street lights were also off if our house current was absent). We installed solar lights in the garden and the front of the house, and a backup battery for the garage door opener.

Yes, eventually the load shedding abated due to some actual efforts by Eskom – but our electrical troubles actually didn’t. The suburb we live in is an old one.