Power crisis meeting planned

Johannesburg, 07 Feb 2008

The South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) is to convene an "urgent information forum" to help the business community develop coping strategies for the country's power crisis.

The forum will take place on 11 February, at the John Maree Auditorium Eskom Training Centre, in Midrand. Entry will be free of charge and business and industrial management, as well as private consumers, are urged to attend, the institute says.

SAIEE president Ian McKechnie says the organisation hopes the forum will add value to the business, industrial and private consumer communities.

"We are taking a three-pronged approach to this problem by getting key players together in one room to arm the business, industrial and private consumer community with the guidance needed to devise coping strategies for the next five to seven years."

McKechnie adds: "Clear information will be presented on the nature and extent of the problem, strategies that are in place right now and future plans. It is intended that this will assist decision-makers in business and industry to better understand the depth of the current problem and help them to deal with it. This workshop also aims to provide the business and private consumer sector with advice on self-help strategies."

Eskom, City Power and engineering practitioner Professor Willie Cronje are expected to speak at the forum.

While Eskom and City Power will be there to "set the scene"; Cronje will explain a range of technologies and engineering solutions available to business and industry to enable them to cope with this problem.

Cronje intends to include information on the adoption of energy-efficient computing as a way of reducing the electricity demand.