Pretoria — Government is to dedicate a day in November this year to replace at least 10 million incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) throughout the country.

This will help further reduce the demand on the electricity grid and forms part of government's target to reach a 10 percent electricity saving of 3000 MW.

Speaking after the Stakeholder Advisory Council at the Union Buildings on Tuesday, the Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Nguka said South Africans did not realize that the country was not yet reaching the target in as far as the saving of electricity is concerned.

"Unless we save energy, we run the risk of experiencing a situation not dissimilar to the one we were confronted with last summer," Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka said, adding that further details of the day will be announced at a later stage.

The current saving is at 1000 MW, which is 2000 MX short of the target.

The Stakeholder Advisory Council is a body that involves labour, government, business as well as community representatives.

In a statement released by the Presidency, the Deputy President said the meeting was concerned that with the country going into the summer season, most people did not realise the extent to which air conditioning at homes, commercial enterprises and in the hospitality industry used electricity.

She said when this was coupled with guzzlers such as geysers and swimming pool pumps, it could have an overwhelming effect on the electricity supply in the country.

The Deputy President urged all South Africans to develop an energy saving consciousness.

Early July, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa announced that while some electricity targets were being met, the South African public still lagged behind industry in terms of its ability to reduce its electricity demands.

When Eskom was forced to carry out scheduled and unscheduled load-shedding earlier this year, major industrial consumers were approached to reduce their energy consumption by 10 percent.