LISTEN: Load shedding forces South Africans to find alternative power sources

In the recent years consumer trends have shown an increase in the purchases of gas inverters and even generators to keep up with the continued failing grid. But this has not been an easy transition.

JOHANNESBURG - Load shedding, an addition to South Africa's lexicon, is frustrating citizens forcing them to find alternatives to deal with not having electricity.

Some citizens, with deep pockets, purchase expensive systems to keep the lights on.

These include sonar panels, inverters and generators.

In the recent years consumer trends have shown an increase in the purchases of gas inverters and even generators to keep up with the continued failing grid. But this has not been an easy transition.

During an inside Eyewitness News roundtable discussion renewable energy specialist Trevor Mthombothi, who installs uninterruptible power supplies and inverters explained that for people who have sensitive electrical appliances like a compute.

These mechanisms provide instant power supply.

"Think of it as your power bank that you charge while the power is on and when there is an outage it acts as a backup on the other hand an inverter is the main player in the solar system that converts power so that it is able to use appliances".

Meanwhile trend analyst and founder of TrendER Mogorosi Mashilo, who conducted an online consumer research, said that consumers have had to bear the burden of cost to access alternative sources of energy.

At the same time, others have simply gone back to the basics with the use of candlelight or primer stove - which uses paraffin for illumination.

"Our research has shown that gas is the number one go to for most consumers as it's affordable and second to that is the generator, followed by an inverter. These are the top three measures that most consumers lean...

Mashilo also added that consumers have shown decline in buying a lot of food that rely on the fridge as most consumers have also complained about having to make amends to replace broken appliances due to loadshedding.

"While consumers have complained about a stretched budget of trying to fix appliances, they have alluded to alternative sources of energy as. a need because life needs to go on and most consumers need the back up for appliances such as the alarm and cctv cameras for safety because during loadshedding crime increases as well."

Education around the renewables remains very important as most simply cannot use or maintain them. Mthombothi said that it is all on the consumer to consider the batteries balancing what the alternatives can handle.

"User management is critical, the capacity of the system might have limitations so the user needs to be aware of the capacity they have in their households. Its all a balancing game."

Listen to the full conversation below.