South Africans will be forgiven a wry smile if Germany has to implement load shedding next year, as the government is warning.
According to a report in Freight News, Germany’s looming electricity shortage is caused not by supply failures, as in South Africa, but by a deliberate policy of switching the country from fossil fuels to electricity to heat homes and power cars, trucks and buses.
The cuts will not be nearly as severe as in South Africa, where homes and businesses can spend nearly half the day without power. But they will also, as in South Africa, be known as “load shedding”.
Because Germany will have to move so much of its power consumption to electricity, the national electricity grid agency Bundesnetzagentur, has announced that load shedding is coming.
The agency announced that it was introducing regulations to allow it so shut off devices in consumers’ homes, such as heat pumps and electric vehicle charging stations during periods of high demand, without the permission of those affected, the report said.
In South Africa, that mild level of load shedding would be a welcome relief.
