The intensity of rolling blackouts, which signals an ever-widening power crisis, is now accompanied by mounting feelings of dread. 

Previous bouts of rolling blackouts elicited frustration and anger, but nothing like the current sense of foreboding that the crisis is far worse than we know.

Covid and the subsequent enforced disruptions to segments of the economy – the rise of working from home, redundant workers becoming solopreneurs, digital nomadism and the like – add another layer of complexity to the issue.

Almost three years ago, peak-hour load shedding would occur while most people were at the office. The lights would go out. A few minutes later, the lights would be on again and computer screens would flicker back to life, thanks to workplace generators.

By the time the scheduled blackouts were over, most workers would be home preparing dinner and getting on with life. However, this scenario no longer applies to present-day realities.

Now, when the lights go out, the work stops. Work and life come to a standstill. Power surges frazzle electronic equipment, the Wi-Fi dies, along with inverter batteries, and laptop batteries struggle with erratic charging. Mobile network signals disappear from cellphone screens.

The inconvenience factor has not only multiplied, but it is also amplified by the domino effect rolling blackouts have on work and life in general.

For an operator like Vodacom, rolling blackouts are simply “a disaster”, Group CEO Shameel Joosub said in a recent interview.

“The havoc it plays on our network is huge,” he said.

Over the past two years, Vodacom has spent R2-billion on back-up batteries and generators. The company has installed batteries at all its sites, and ramped up the number of batteries in stock. 

But that’s one aspect of the complicated equation. The current rolling blackouts have coincided with a spike in theft of back-up batteries, according to Joosub.   

“Eight hours of blackouts – it’s a disaster. The batteries don’t get a chance to recharge,” Joosub said. “It’s disruptive when it comes out of nowhere.”

There’s a cap on the number of generators Vodacom can operate – running 15,000 generators is just not feasible.  

Faced with that dilemma, “what you then need to do is … [choose] hub sites”, Joosub says.

Simply put, Vodacom staggers the network to re-energise its back-up power sources to keep coverage going, even when the power dies for up to eight hours.

Said Joosub: “If there are three sites in an area, you have to go for the one with the wireless coverage. You move that one to eight hours, then the others to six and … [the rest] to four [hours]. You have to tier it.”  

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The overnight nature of load shedding announcements, accompanied by rapid escalations in stages, adds further complications.  

“Of course, one has to appreciate that there are a lot of people at Eskom doing their best to solve the problem, but it’s very disruptive for us, nonetheless,” says Joosub.

“We’re trying to work with Eskom – with André and his team – to come up with more innovative solutions on how to add more power to the grid.” 

Vodacom made waves recently when it acquired a minority stake in Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH) – the parent to Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa (DFA).

The transaction is awaiting approval from the Competition Commission. However, internet service providers (ISPs) have lodged an objection, citing fears that they would be elbowed out of the open access network that resides within CIVH fibre assets.

Asked if the ISPs have cause for concern, Joosub says not.

“That vehicle [proposed in the transaction] will be open access. It’s ingrained into the way business happens,” says Joosub.

In fact, according to Joosub, the transaction will entail bringing in Vodacom’s fibre assets and adding those to the existing open access. That will result in ISPs having a bigger market to access.

“You’ll be able to put more fuel in the tank.”

Furthermore, combining all the assets under one vehicle will enable Vuma and DFA to run faster, says Joosub.

Most important, “for me, we go into the transaction with those principles. I’m very willing and committed to making those commitments at the Competition Commission. We have no intention of changing,” Joosub said.

A major attraction that drove Vodacom to initiate the transaction is that Vuma has cracked the township market, which has largely remained underserviced.

“We exist to connect people. We need to make sure that we can take … [access] to the townships and more areas in South Africa,” Joosub says.

Townships, whether in major metros or on the outskirts of secondary towns, tend to be the worst affected areas by both rolling blackouts and a lack of mobile network coverage.

There is consensus among experts that electricity supply and reliable internet access are enablers of small business, solopreneurship and digital nomadism, which can generate new forms of employment in a jobs-starved economy such as South Africa’s.

Thus, rolling blackouts have transcended mere inconvenience and become a serious impediment to the realities of the post-coronavirus world. BM/DM