Going “off-grid” is the biggest delusion of the South African energy industry – it simply isn’t feasible and extremely expensive. Even if you get to an “off-grid” situation, energy management is essential to the viability of it. According to the Oxford Dictionary,
off-grid neabs not using or depending on public utilities, especially the supply of electricity.
However, becoming less dependent on the grid and getting through load shedding with few to no operational disruptions is possible and very feasible.
Eskom’s load shedding schedule for the next two years indicates that homeowners and businesses can expect a massive amount of downtime over the coming years.
What’s worse is we are likely to experience water shedding in 2023 just as the province of KZN has.
This continuous disruption is really costing South African businesses. According to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) latest load-shedding data, Load-shedding cost the South African economy R560 billion in 2022, and Eskom has no concrete plans to address the problem.
As Blue Titan Investment Group, we considered the lack of maintenance infrastructure during the Covid lockdowns, realizing that hardly anyone was working let alone maintaining the existing infrastructure.
Therefore, we created a hybrid solution for our clients at The Paramount. This ensures minimal downtime if any in terms of both essential power, cooking and water supply. According to Blue Titan Investment Group CEO, Marco Gerazounis, “Considering the lack of maintenance on the infrastructure in South Africa, we have no choice but to ensure that we provide a holistic solution to our clients, ensuring that they can not only live but can continue to work from home.
The Paramount Houghton provides the following three solutions to our investors and home owners:
- Essential Continuity Electricity Service
- Gas Geyser and Gas Appliances
- Water Continuity Backup
As better offerings come to the market so too will Blue Titan Investment Group continue to incorporate the most effective solution based on the overall property size, location, roof sizes, etc.
Therefore, is South Africa ready to go off grid? Going “off-grid” is the biggest delusion of the South African energy industry – it simply isn’t feasible and extremely expensive.
Going off grid is the biggest misconception of the South African energy industry – it simply isn’t feasible, yet. But, becoming less dependent government services and getting through load and water shedding will have a smaller impact with fewer operational disruptions. That is possible and feasible. And it can be achieved without any additional capital investment such as been demonstrated at The Paramount in Houghton.