South Africa has been plagued with energy issues. There is corruption and inefficiency, that ends up causing outages. As a result, the country is always looking to save energy, not unlike the rest of the world. Tech Central recently reported on a major plan from South Africa’s major energy entity Eskom to establish “smart meters” to improve efficiency.
Many have discussed the implementation of smart meters in various communities throughout the world, but this one is facing particular scrutiny out of the fear that it could lead to a loss of autonomy and privacy. Eskom would install these meters into eight million homes. The meters would come with financing options to help low-income homes.
Eskom would be able to remotely run operations for when the energy could be accessed, and to send alerts about needing to shut off the appliances. This connection would also give Eskom more accurate information regarding how things are going in terms of energy use. If Eskom could reach full implementation of these meters, that could result in a massive load shedding of 10 percent of total electricity use in the nation.
Proponents of these meters argue that the implementation of these meters could reduce energy bills by 35 percent. They also argue that these changes could save all homeowners money in terms of promptly knowing about any breakdowns in the utilities, and keeping track of how much money they are spending on their energy.
This piece promotes the promises of these meters without going into as much detail about the potential downsides. It glosses over concerns about autonomy. While countries like the US, offer a lot more autonomy in terms of surveillances, there is also the concern with South Africa, in terms of how it has already been marred by corruption, could lead to further problems with the accuracy of the meters. Additionally, the figures in this article assume 100 percent compliance. South Africa might have an easier time getting the authority to do so than in the US, but still logistically it could be tough. South Africa already has issues with making utilities work logistically, so the ability to go into millions of homes to install these meters could prove challenging. But they need some type of solution to their current problem. Still, it seems like this solution will not be the end all be all.