Rampant theft and vandalism are the main reasons why some of South Africa’s biggest metros don’t offer backup power for their traffic lights.
Among the many negative impacts of load-shedding is its ability to frustrate motorists by disrupting the flow of traffic.
This is particularly problematic in major cities like Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town, where a single offline robot can significantly increase commuters’ travel times.
However, traffic intersections are not heavy power consumers — with the largest LED-powered installations consuming around 450W of power.
That could theoretically be supported by a battery backup costing less than R10,000 at retail, including VAT.
GeeWiz sells 1.5kWh lithium-ion batteries for R6,995 that you can pair with a Mecer inverter for under R3,000.
While that might be expensive when multiplied across all the intersections in the…
Load-shedding traffic nightmare — why batteries for robots don’t work
