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Comment by woodruffw | Hacker News Reader

There’s an interesting incentive cycle here: decades of underinvestment in the power grid[1] have driven wealthier (in turn, primarily whiter) South Africans towards individual power sources, in turn fostering a market for stolen solar panels, etc. A good example of how private power sources (even green ones) exacerbate underinvestment in public utilities (since the people most capable of financing the utilities can opt out of doing so instead).

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_energy_crisis

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Out of curiosity - of all the reasons for underinvestment in and failure of public utilities in SA why do you find this one interesting? In the case of SA the failure is almost entirely attributable to the policies and practices of the government over the past 30 years. No amount of investment in the public power utility would make any difference - because all the money that goes in goes straight out via corruption and nepotism.

Those South Africans who can afford to go off the grid have not opted out of public utilities - public utilities are approaching non-existent - forcing people to spend on alternative energy just to have the luxury of having lights in their homes at night or cooking a meal.

I find them all interesting, it was just one that's been on my mind. We see the same thing happening (albeit on a smaller scale) in other countries with semi-mature power grids with high Gini coefficients.

Got it thanks - interesting that it's a general phenomenon.

When you say "past 30 years", I can only assume you blaming the issues on the end of Apartheid in SA. What do you think the Apartheid government was doing right? What do you think the dissolution of legal Apartheid did wrong?

It is already happening - some municipalities get nearly 50% of their income from reselling power and water - the people who actually pay for these services are now moving onto solar.

And with Eskom losing these prime customers it will mean increase bailouts from govt which means increased tax burdens on taxpayers who happen to be the same ones who moved to solar.

That's a good data-point, because a few people were speculating that with the PG&E new proposed fee structure (lower per kWh charges coupled with a income-indexed flat monthly fee), the most wealthy would choose to opt-out of the grid instead of paying the fee, and this could trickle down until the grid was unsustainable.

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