As we edge into the grips of our South African winter, it seems an inevitability that there is going to be loadshedding as the SA power grid is stretched past it's paltry limit.
Fortunately there are two little tools, those of us who are 'connected' can use to assist us in keeping informed as to if and when we will be without power.

www.loadalert.co.za is an email based tool. Alerts are emailed each day and again when the grid status changes. The mails contain the current status and the resultant times the electricity is due to be shut off in the area(s) you have selected when signing up. I have used this tool for some time now and have been relatively impressed by it's accuracy and extremely impressed with the way they have communicated, not just the loadshedding updates but also their own challenges in getting the correct information from Eskom.

www.myenergy.co.za offers a little desktop application that you can download for free. It keeps itself updated with the latest status, displaying this graphically. While the expected outages are displayed within the application's interface, you can minimize it and should the status change or loadshedding about to be implemented in your chosen area(s) a little information alert pops up. It's nicely customisable, and a potentially very powerful feature, if Eskom and your local municipality come to the party, is the option to shut your pc down a configurable number of minutes before the imminent power outage(with a warning message).

South Africans are known for their resourcefulness, and these two tools are proof thereof.

Labels: electricity, eskom, loadalert.co.za, loadshedding, myenergy.co.za, notifications

Posted by eishman on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 7:51 PM | Permalink