Severe rolling blackouts have caused the demand for electrical appliance repairs to surge by triple digits, a report by a local platform connecting customers to specialised services has revealed.
Though electricians are experiencing an increase in workload because of electrical appliances breaking down from a sudden increase in voltage when power is restored, they say they are overwhelmed by load-shedding repairs as they have limited time to complete repairs when outages spike.
Analysing data on the number and types of electrical repairs requested on the Procompare platform and contrasting it against data from the EskomSePush App to determine the frequency and severity of load-shedding, Procompare found that national demand for electrical repairs has been steadily increasing year on year in tandem with the blackouts.
The survey based on more than 1,000 requests for electrical repairs in that period all over the country found there was a significant spike in demand for electrician services in October with call-outs increasing 139% compared to the same month in the previous year.
Demand surged a staggering 218% and 371% in December and January respectively, corresponding to the severity of rolling blackouts in that period but slipped slightly in February to 113%, though still higher than the prior comparative period.
This is because load-shedding causes electrical systems of appliances including air conditioners, refrigerators, geysers and gate motors to malfunction and break down. An occurrence that happens when power is restored and creates a sudden surge of electricity that exceeds the regular voltage, causing damage to electrical equipment and appliances connected to the main power.
While the trend of increasing fixes may mean more business for electricians, Procompare said service providers were lamenting the brief time they have to complete repairs.
Adam Parson, the owner of Abacas Electrical Solution, a Cape Town-based company registered with Procompare echoed this sentiment saying, power outages were affecting his business both positively and negatively.
Outlining that repairs with a single client can take anything from a few hours to three weeks for repairs of transformers, solar panels and electrical certification, he said electricians were having to juggle the rise in demand with the load-shedding schedules of each area where they had call-outs.
“It’s more work but less time for fixes,” Parsons told Business Day, explaining that after a repair is complete, “you have to test when the power is on”, and that it was tough for small and medium-sized enterprises to cash in on the boom.
“You are so busy but you can’t schedule your jobs, you have to work about the load-shedding schedule,” he said.
Moreover, this has seen the entry of numerous unregistered electricians creeping into the market and led to further calls for registered electricians to go out to fix shoddy work.
“The solar market is so big now that even guys that were doing roofing tiling, carpenters and plasterers, mechanics, painters, they are doing solar. So people must just be careful when getting those services done that it is being done by somebody that is qualified,” warned Parsons.
There have been widespread reports about insurance companies informing their clients that they cannot protect them against a collapse of the national electricity grid and that should that occur, policyholders cannot claim damages. This has spooked both service providers and policyholders.
When it comes to payments for repairs done, electricians are opting for cash remuneration rather than claiming with insurers, saying there were a lot of delays and uncertainty about what insurance companies are prepared to pay for.
“We don’t work with insurance companies; it takes a very long time,” said Parsons, adding that service providers prefer to just avoid dealing with insurers and would rather provide clients with all the necessary documentation to make an insurance claim themselves.
gumedemi@businesslive.co.za
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