Hacker News Reader

Comment by happymellon | Hacker News Reader

From what I understand, South Africa's electrical problems have been long term political.

That's the case everywhere in the world, it's not a tech issue. The tech exists.

The technology certainly exists, though some of it is pretty new and not all of it is mature or commoditized (particularly in the context of high levels of penetration of variable renewables on the grid).

That being said, politics aren't the only reason why it might not be deployed. Capitalization issues, for one, are also common. Additionally, you have to make a judgement call about what you consider included in "politics" -- for example, does corruption count?

Not always, sometimes its logistics, sometimes outside forces which create time pressures.

Not everything can be solved by money, sometimes its a mythical man month/9 women can't produce a baby in 1 month issue.

However in this scenario, its pure neglect which is causing power issues.

In this case though, high reliability electricity delivery is very doable. Many countries achieve 3 9s or higher. Sure there are the issues like the recent Spain/Portugal blackout but even that has some political roots.

Renewables solve logistics problems.

Running a fossil fuel grid requires a bunch of logistics to source, refine, and deliver the fuel. In addition to general equipment upkeep.

Renewables only require equipment upkeep.

It's the upkeep problem that is a problem in South Africa. It's like government doesn't understand the concept of "maintenance"

Most of those problems are politically motivated. You know how fast towns tend to grow. Someone new the grid was going to need upgrades. Someone else decided it would be better spent on something else. That’s politics.

And if a town grows surprisingly fast, that may also be politics. Even geopolitics (eg, refugees).

> Not everything can be solved by money, sometimes its a mythical man month/9 women can't produce a baby in 1 month issue.

I mean, its not like they just discovered electricity. Sure sometimes things take time, but that is still a money issue because it means there was insufficient budget for maintainance and future capacity planning

It’s a corruption issue where certain people use it as a personal bank. Lots of deferred maintenance, no build out, but lots of greed -not just a little.

The political system there clearly allows for high levels of corruption.

Yup, it is deeply political, and I think ordinary citizens such as myself don't even understand how deep the corruption goes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com