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A farmer in KwaZulu-Natal says erratic electricity shut down ventilation in one of his chicken houses in December, killing 11 500 chickens, or a quarter of his flock on that farm.
In yet another incident of electricity variations interfering with farm equipment, Dudley Anderson told News24 that one of his chicken houses at his farm in Fort Nottingham lost ventilation in mid-December, with the electricity also knocking out his alert system.
SEE | 40 000 chickens killed, farmer to put R1.5m claim to Eskom
The line connecting to the farm's transformer had been sparking for three days, but was fixed by Eskom on 10 December, he said. Then, 15 December, at 03:00, one of the breakers in a chicken house became compromised, knocking out the ventilation. Four people, including him and managers, were supposed to be alerted to any electrical problems or temperature shifts, he said, but the problem was only discovered at 07:00 when staff arrived. The phasing issue that affected one of four chicken houses also knocked out his internet, which the alarm system was tied into.
"It's just like a perfect storm," he said. "I do have generators, I do have backups, I have everything in place."
WATCH | Farm dumps almost 12 000 litres of milk in one day due to load shedding
The farm equipment, however, wasn't designed for constant switching on and off, nor for variations in electricity, he said. Eskom allowed for a variation in voltage of 5%, he said, but this week he had measured his voltage went from 410 volts to 350 volts.
"The equipment is not designed for that, we can't see what's going to happen until its happened," he said. Anderson said he had spent significantly on a box that equalises the electricity phases, but he simply couldn't afford, at this point, to go completely off grid.
"I'm using 2 000 litres [of diesel] a month to run my generator, when that should [normally] last me six months. Financially, it becomes a bit of a burden," he said.
See the latest on SA's energy crisis here.
