Cost of Unserved Energy

COUE is a relatively unknown professional term which most people have never heard of. However most people in South Africa are beginning to feel the effects of COUE. This terms refers to the real cost to the economy of undelivered electricity i.e. a situation when there is no electricity available via the regular electrical grid. According to a recently published document by the Department of Energy in South Africa, the COUE for South Africa is approximately R75 per kWh which is about 100 times more than the cost of paying for electricity when it is available. This is the reason why people are willing to pay for diesel generators which normally cost around R10 per kWh and puts out both noise and air pollution. This is also why more and more people around the world are moving to Solar or other renewable energy sources despite the perceived high costs. I say perceived because in fact once the equipment is paid for, solar and wind are the cheapest forms of energy since they have no input fuel. The fact that solar and wind are not always available should be managed by using a suitable energy storage media. The bottom line is that we no longer have a choice to remain undecided.

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