Pretoria - The image of South Africa is negatively affected by load shedding, especially when it’s implemented during live match broadcasts when the world can witness its effects.
This was said by Electrosafe director Gareth du Preez during the second day of the Stadium and Facilities Conference hosted in partnership with John Deere Financial Services at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
He was addressing participants in the conference on the impact of the current energy crisis on South African stadiums and facilities.
The turnout at sports matches was likely to be poor because “people can’t get to the stadium because traffic lights are out and the roads are dark”, said Du Preez.
He said safety at night was a major concern among sporting fans. Power infrastructure was often affected negatively by the switching on and off of electricity, he said.
He said stadium managers ought to put power in place as a mitigating measure against the effects of power outages that interfere with the presentation of matches.
“It is a requirement for most games that are televised,” he said.
He added that generators needed to be connected correctly and safely, as well as the fuelling of generators during public events.
“The other problem we have is that generators are in very short supply,” he said.
As a possible solution, he suggested that at least three to four stadiums that did not have power back-ups could pool their resources and purchase a fleet of generators.
“Cricket South Africa will need to work around the schedules of the games to accommodate this,” he said.
He also suggested a reduction in electricity demands in stadiums, such as conducting energy audits and changing the main lights to LEDs, which brought power consumption down by 45%.
Kitchens at the stadiums ought to consider using gas as their main energy source.
Du Preez said SuperSport Park used six generators on a game day, making use of 4 800 litres of diesel and 3.3MVA power to alleviate the impact of load shedding.
On the other hand, he said, Wanderers Stadium would have two generators, 9 000 litres of diesel and 2.1MVA of power.
Pretoria News