Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Trump tariffs could wreck South Africa’s vehicle manufacturing industry

      14 July 2025

      Legislative overhaul on the cards for South Africa’s ICT sector

      14 July 2025

      The 1940s visionary who imagined the Information Age

      14 July 2025

      Microsoft South Africa to get new MD as Lillian Barnard moves to regional role

      14 July 2025

      Zuckerberg used open source to scale AI – now the lock-in begins

      14 July 2025
    • World

      Grok 4 arrives with bold claims and fresh controversy

      10 July 2025

      Bitcoin pushes higher into record territory

      10 July 2025

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025

      Grammarly acquires e-mail start-up Superhuman

      1 July 2025

      Apple considers ditching its own AI in Siri overhaul

      1 July 2025
    • In-depth

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | MVNX on the opportunities in South Africa’s booming MVNO market

      11 July 2025

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025

      TCS+ | First Distribution on the latest and greatest cloud technologies

      27 June 2025
    • Opinion

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Energy and sustainability » Load shedding: A small business survival guide

    Load shedding: A small business survival guide

    By Pieter Bensch20 October 2019
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    Eskom this week announced the return of stage-2 load shedding due to a broken coal conveyor belt at Medupi and boiler tube leaks at five electricity generating units. It serves as a reminder that every business owner and manager needs to factor an unreliable power supply into their business plan.

    South Africa’s economy lost an estimated R12-billion during three days of stage-4 load shedding in March, with smaller businesses among the worst affected by the power outages. However, you can mitigate some of the effects of load shedding through a range of solutions, some of them cheap and simple, some complex and expensive.

    Here are some suggestions on how small businesses can survive:

    1. Plan around the schedule

    Planning is critical in the battle against load shedding. The EskomSePush app can help you stay up to date as it provides push notifications to mobile devices. Also, be sure to follow Eskom or your municipal provider on social media for load shedding news alerts: on Twitter, Eskom, City Power in Johannesburg and City of Cape Town, for example.

    You can mitigate the impact of load shedding by asking people to work at home or rescheduling jobs, as long as you know when it will hit your area.

    2. Adopt flexible working hours and allow people to work remotely

    When load shedding hits one of the major cities, your employees may arrive at work late after fighting their way through gridlocked traffic, then sit around in the dark for up to four-and-a-half hours. Why not allow people who can do their work via the Internet to work at home rather than coming into the office when it’s your turn to be load-shed? This way, productivity can continue, and your team doesn’t have to wait until the power is back on.

    Many people in services businesses or in supporting corporate roles can do their work from anywhere, provided they have an Internet connection. This may require you to change some of your processes and management policies — but the benefits to workers and businesses can be significant. Load shedding aside, growing traffic and rising property costs mean that remote working is becoming a more attractive option for many small businesses.

    3. Adopt cloud-based business solutions

    One of the best ways to ensure that your business remains productive throughout this period of load shedding is to embrace cloud-based business solutions. If you use online software rather than on-premise software, you can work anywhere you have access to an Internet connection. Your team will simply be able to log into your accounting software or customer relationship management software or productivity tools at home or from the nearest hotspot or even using mobile data, without depending on a PC or a server in the office. The latest data and work will be available to your employees from their tablets, smartphone or notebooks without you needing to worry about doing backups.

    4. Regular backups

    Keep your latest data backed up so that you won’t lose hours of work or any important information when the power goes out. Regular data backups are a must, not only because of load shedding; they can also be a lifesaver if your hard drive crashes or your computers are stolen. For a small business, simply using a cloud-based storage and backup solution like Dropbox or Microsoft’s OneDrive can be a lifesaver.

    These cloud storage and backup solutions allow you to keep online copies of every document you work on. But it can also be a good idea to back your data up to an external physical hard drive, just in case you need it urgently and don’t have access to the internet. If you use cloud-based tools and applications, you will generally not need to worry about backing up data such as accounting and payroll records.

    5. Invest in UPSes for your PCs, network hubs and switches

    Not every small business can afford the cost of high-end alternative energy solutions such as installing generators or solar-powered batteries. But there are other options.

    A UPS will give users time to exit the applications they are working on and save their work before they safely shut down their PCs if there is a power failure. Even if you have generators, they’ll take a few seconds to kick in after a power failure — a UPS will prevent them from losing power before you’ve saved your work.

    A backup power inverter system is another option. For less than R10 000, you can find one that will keep your routers, a couple of computers and some lights going for a few hours. Mobile data networks are congested and sometimes unreliable when the power goes down, so powering your ADSL or fibre with an alternate power supply can be a big productivity booster.

    6. Switch PCs off and unplug them when the lights go out

    Power surges when electricity is restored after an outage may damage your hardware. To reduce the risk of damage to hardware, switch off your PCs and unplug them from the main power source.

    7. Get a power bank

    We all love our smartphones, but their battery life under heavy use is still not as great as we’d like. A power bank can help you manage your business when there’s load shedding. These portable chargers let you top up the battery of your USB-powered mobile devices so you can keep going when there’s a long power outage.

    This is especially helpful if your landlines go down when there’s no power — at least your mobile phone will be powered up and you’ll be reachable. Power banks are also helpful if you’re out and about for most of the day and constantly finding yourself out of battery power for your smartphone. At the same time, your smartphone can also be used as a mobile hotspot to connect to the Internet.

    • Pieter Bensch is the executive vice president, Africa & Middle East, at Sage
    • This article was originally published on Moneyweb and is used here with permission


    Eskom Pieter Bensch Sage top
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleObituary | Mark Hurd, Silicon Valley’s ultimate salesman
    Next Article Enforced Eskom blackouts unlikely this week

    Related Posts

    Medupi unit 4 rejoins grid, easing winter load shedding fears

    7 July 2025

    Eskom unbundling paves way for competitive power market

    7 July 2025

    World Bank set to back South Africa’s big energy grid roll-out

    20 June 2025
    Company News

    Banking on LEO: Q-KON transforms financial services connectivity

    14 July 2025

    The future of business calling: Voys brings your landline to the cloud

    14 July 2025

    How digital twins and AI are shaping the future of security

    14 July 2025
    Opinion

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.