An energy shortage in South Africa is seriously hampering fruit growers who are in the process of harvesting and packing their fruit.
Over the past three weeks, frequent power outages have been experienced throughout the country, causing headaches for both the public and private sectors, and challenging the ability of coldstorage facilities and shipping companies to maintain the cold chain. The two-week delay in the South African deciduous harvest due to cool weather during the spring is now likely to be compounded by these harvesting and shipping delays.
As a short-term measure to cope with the power shortage, the beleaguered power utility Eskom has introduced load sharing, a schedule where power outages of four hours or less are planned and the public is notified beforehand. Although the effect of the power outages is being felt at coldstorage facilities around the country, these establishments are able to manage the situation without breaking the cold chain or compromising fruit quality.
In the Western Cape, the fruit harvesting season is now peaking, and Western Cape minister of agriculture Cobus Dowry and other members of the government have met with organised agriculture and Eskom in order to devise ways of minimising the impact on fruit harvesting and cooling.
“Thus far we have been able to continue operating without any problems, as Eskom gives us prior notice of outages and we are able to plan around this,” said Roy Du Toit, manager of Hexkoel, a large coldstorage facility that receives the bulk of grapes harvested in the Western Cape’s Hex River Valley. “Eskom has limited power cuts to two hours, so while this is inconvenient, it is not affecting the quality of our fruit.” Facilities such as Hexkoel have invested in back-up generators in order to keep basic equipment such as computers and lighting working during outages.
As unexpected interruptions to the power supply and resulting power surges play havoc with the large compressors and fans at coldstorage facilities, it is important for the power utility to stick to the quoted outage times, as this enables facilities to shut down and restart their machinery without damage.
However, the energy shortage is creating serious problems for the whole economy, and although the government is debating the issue, no solutions have been put forward as yet.
The situation is being exacerbated by the fact that one of the two reactors at Koeberg, South Africa’s only nuclear power station near Cape Town, was shut down in mid- January for a 100-day refurbishment and re-alignment programme.
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