Nompumelelo Magwaza
THE USE of gas stoves and generators has increased over the past two months in response to Eskom’s power cuts.
The power utility, which has implemented power cuts for nine consecutive days, has warned South Africans that they should expect power disruptions for at least another two years.
In the meantime households and small businesses have found ways to deal with the power outage, including investing in gas stoves and diesel generators.
Massmart spokeswoman Annaleigh Vallie yesterday said it had seen an increase in sales of all energy-efficient products, from solar lights to geysers, gas stoves and generators.
Doubled
Vallie said generator sales had more than doubled over the past year. “We have been working around the clock to keep up with demand and have been bringing in new stock regularly.”
She said at Massmart’s Builders Warehouse stores, generators were being purchased by both homeowners and businesses.
“But we have seen a notable increase in home use.”
Brett Cohen, a managing director at the Gas Company in Pretoria, said the firm had definitely seen increased demand for gas stoves and gas installation from household owners.
He said customers were using gas for heating up their geysers and stoves.
“We have definitely seen more activity in terms of quotations for gas installation, including people wanting the installation of gas geysers as well as stand-alone gas stoves.”
Cohen said the use of gas gave people independence from Eskom and in terms of price it was competitive with electricity rates.
Online store OLX, which specialises in second-hand goods, said yesterday that it had seen an average growth in generator sales of 131 percent over the past three months.
“We have seen a huge jump in generators being listed on OLX in the past few weeks,” said Tamryn Combrink of OLX South Africa.
“We believe on-going frustrations around load-shedding have led to consumers selling second-hand generators to make way for new ones, and that people are taking advantage of the increase in demand for these items,” she added.
Eskom yesterday said that its power systems remained severely constrained and would remain so for the rest of the week.
The government-owned power producer cut as much as 2 000 megawatts of power yesterday evening.