While Eskom struggles to avoid catastrophic grid collapse, we review Power Factor Correction in South Africa and provide a guide to real operational savings. As industry braces for more load-shedding small and medium businesses, the engine of our failing economy, are left worrying about more than keeping the lights on.
According to a 2020 McKinsey & Company report (as reported by BBC) small and medium businesses make up at least 98% of the country’s business landscape and they effectively employ between 50% to 60% of the South African workforce.
What happens to these people when the lights are officially switched off for good?
One of the top costs in a business’s operation is electricity. You may be paying your energy supplier as expected; however, we know the funds will probably never make it from the municipality to Eskom.
What if you could reduce your monthly expenditure with guaranteed monthly savings and payback? Our simple guide and real-life examples show just how clever you can be in “keeping the lights on” so to speak.
Guaranteed savings can be as much as 20% of your monthly electrical expenditure.
How much is your business losing?
How much is load-shedding costing your business or economy? Well in a recent BBC report, looking at the dreaded stages – all the way up to stage 6 – on any particular day South Africa loses around R250 Million, for every stage of shedding.
In fact, the shocking truth, looking at the BBC report with energy expert Lungile Mashele, is that on stage 6 our economy is basically bleeding around R1,5 Billion.
There is no way that you can escape the fact, that electricity is a major issue, and we believe it is up to every business to stand united and make a real change to our economy’s future.
Energy expert, Lungile Mashele recently unpacked President Cyril Ramaphosa’s electricity plans with Newzroom Afrika and she stated that she did not believe the plan shows progress.
Sighing she said, “what he announced is something that we’ve known since 1998 already.” Mashele continued “what I think is even more scary is the fact that it’s been built as a plan when ultimately it’s just a series of concepts as well as ideas.”
Can your business afford to wait on these “unactionable plans”?
Installing 5,200 megawatts when risk mitigation ipps aren’t closed, installing solar for residential homes to feed back into the grid? What about businesses, the lifeblood of our economy? How? Where is the mechanism, what are the tariffs – is it even actionable?
Botswana to our rescue? News24 reports BPC is engaging Eskom to purchase the “excess electricity supply” generated during off-peak times (weekends) in order to “protect our plants against load management fluctuations.”
As an actionable plan for all businesses with a monthly electricity bill of R30,000 or more, Power Factor Correction available in South Africa gives actionable and guaranteed savings.
Those savings you can put back into your operations.
So, while our government push ‘Eskom 2.0’ for South Africa, we invite you to calculate your business savings and guaranteed payback (ROI).
How we can take action
It could possibly take another decade of talks, and by then, you could have ultimately put around a million back into your business (depending on your monthly bill and energy provider) in 10 years.
Let’s move forward, while Eskom continues to grapple with electricity supply, in an attempt to prevent the grid from collapsing.
In the words of our founder Eric Solot, “The power of data obtained from an energy audit enables the design of the right PFC solution & allows us to guarantee the savings which will be achieved from the PFC solution we offer.”
All you need to do is supply us with 3 simple answers to determine a long-term affordable solution for your business.
- Typical monthly spend
- The municipality that bills you
- Your industry you are in
Here are the real and achievable savings you can expect within your business.
Data Center Example
As the world continues to move to the cloud and become more digital AKCP forecasted the industry’s growth to be a potential whopping 9,000 TWh by 2030! With over 18 Million servers in data centres across the world, up from 11 Million in 2006.
Who knows how big the industry will grow? Here are the PFC savings calculator numbers:
- Typical monthly spend approx. R42,000
- The municipality that bills you – City Power
- PFC investment of only R42,429
- Monthly operational savings est. R3,359
- The net benefit of R713,557.89 within 10 years
Our example shows when you invest in PFC (for almost the same amount as your monthly bill) has a payback period of only 12 months. Ultimately your data centre would benefit with over R700,000 in savings in a decade.
Take the pressure off your business and re-invest these savings into maintenance, salaries, buying new equipment and more!
Dairy products processing example
Looking at the South African dairy industry we know it is energy hungry, and production can’t stop. Eskom wrote, “The agri-processing industry has massive scope for energy efficiency improvements, cost savings and the use of alternative energy solutions.”
They suggest speaking to an energy advisor to help optimise your energy infrastructure and help navigate pitfalls within your operations.
Here is our response to how we can help you reduce your “business’s vulnerability to electricity price increases”
- Typical monthly spend of R236,000
- The municipality that bills you – Ekurhuleni
- PFC investment of only R348,535
- Monthly operational savings est. R18,879
- The net benefit of R3,899,446.15 within 10 years
From the above, we see that while Eskom advises you to seek help, Alpha Power Solutions are actually doing something about it.
Just look at the nearly 4 Million rand that you can re-invest into your operations future.
Why not play with the calculation for your business and chat with us? Like our founder, Eric, we also “love that there is no grey area once we have the right information.”
In fact, we have 2,911 delighted clients, who in total, have enjoyed energy savings of over R1,8 Million (and climbing) – want to join them in this real savings? We are here to not only guide energy-intensive businesses to reduce their electricity costs but also ensure a positive impact on the grid, by installing Power Factor Correction throughout South Africa.
The direct power factor correction cost can be significant, but the long-term benefit is immediate.
With Eskom already talking increases again in April 2023! If your business is already feeling the pinch post this year’s 9.6% electricity tariff chat to us and let us add you to the list of our satisfied clients.