Giving power to the people: when South Africa's electric utility faced severe supply shortages, communication was a cornerstone of the emergency strategy to avert large-scale power interruptions.

Eskom is South Africa's national electric utility, supplying approximately 95 percent of the country's electricity. The Western Cape province receives about 36 percent of its electricity supply from Africa's only nuclear power station, Koeberg. On Christmas Day 2005, a major technical fault occurred at the Koeberg power station that severely affected the province's electricity supply. Because of an unusual combination of events, the Western Cape suddenly faced at least six months of severe electricity shortages.

Although a comprehensive technical recovery plan was quickly implemented, Eskom also needed to convince consumers to reduce their consumption of electricity in order to prevent large-scale power interruptions. To do that, the company developed an extensive Demand Side Management (DSM) program. In addition to a major communication campaign that encompassed advertising and public relations, other initiatives included the distribution and installation of more than 5 million compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and thousands of geyser insulation systems, and incentives offered to businesses to reduce their electricity consumption.

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The communication plan to persuade the public to use electricity sparingly was aimed at all consumers in the Western Cape. However, a quantitative research study of media coverage, organizational ratings and perception measurements revealed that consumers were extremely hostile toward Eskom, feeling that the company expected them to solve the power problem it had created.

Goals and objectives

The goal of the DSM program was simple: Reduce electricity demand in the Western Cape by 400 megawatts per day over a period of four months, an amount about equal to the daily consumption of 250,000 homes.

To support the DSM goal, Eskom had the following objectives:

* Information-sharing. Consumers had to be informed of the situation and how Eskom was addressing it.

* Education and direct call to action. Residential consumers in particular had to be educated about the need for saving electricity.

* Encouragement and recognition. Through regular feedback, consumers had to be kept abreast of progress and thanked for their contribution.

Solution and implementation

The nature of the situation, its potentially serious impact on consumers' lives and the dependence on concerted public action to avert disaster necessitated a veritable flood of information. The campaign's key message, "Together we have the power to save," played on the idea that a concerted community effort was needed to steer the region through the crisis. The underlying communication strategy involved establishing partnerships to manage the situation. Media partnerships were crucial to disseminating information and repairing the damage to Eskom's reputation. Radio, with its immediacy and interactive nature, was a particularly important communication channel. Live reads, sound bites during news bulletins and regular interviews with Eskom spokespeople were key components of getting the message out.

The communication plan consisted of three main aspects:

* Public relations and advertising support for the DSM projects, most notably the rollout of the CFLs and geyser blankets. The communication team briefed the media on the full recovery project, including both the technical aspects and DSM projects. In addition, newspaper inserts and advertorials were used to paint the overall picture of the project. As the crisis was brought under control, the PR focus widened to include success stories and community investment projects. While still keeping energy efficiency top of mind, the larger variety of messages allowed a more positive environment to develop.

* Educating consumers about the need for energy conservation, how to go about it and when their support is particularly crucial. A focused advertising campaign including television, radio and print media helped to make consumers aware of the need to save electricity and offered information on how to reduce their consumption.

* The rollout of a real-time communication channel, Power Alert, that could act as an immediate call to action during shortages. A multidisciplinary communication team devised the Power Alert feature to broadcast messages on the status of the electricity grid between 6 and 9 p.m. on the three television channels of the national broadcaster. Power Alert depicted the state of the grid with four color codes: green, orange, red and brown. Each color was accompanied by a call to action.

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The total communication budget, including production, media and public relations, amounted to R25.5 million over six months. Power Alert cost an additional R23 million.

The second challenge was more onerous, given that it involved message credibility. The communication team addressed this matter by crafting relevant and useful messages, supplying consumers with information that empowered them to manage their personal situations. The trust established in this way was enhanced by messages that clearly illustrated the lengths Eskom was going to in order to address the situation, through the free distribution and installation of energy-efficient equipment.

Measurement and evaluation

In terms of electricity savings, the overall target of 400 megawatts per day was exceeded by 100 megawatts per day at the height of the campaign in June 2006.

Eskom measured the success of the communication program and the recovery of its reputation through two sets of independent research, conducted in August and December 2006. Both sets of research results indicated that people viewed the campaign as effective, useful, believable and informative. Almost 80 percent of respondents claimed their behavior had changed in some way, with almost 75 percent limiting their use of electrical appliances during peak periods.

More important, respondents acknowledged their role in saving electricity, and that changes in personal behavior, as opposed to investment in electricity-saving equipment, seemed to be driving the savings.

Pieter J. Pretorius is branding center manager for the group communication department at Eskom in Cape Town, South Africa. Latetia Venter is residential market sector manager for Eskom Demand Side Management, in the department of Key Sales and Customer Services in Cape Town.