Eskom extends daily power cuts in South Africa

• 2 years ago (2022-07-04)
• David Flin

Africa 323 Coal 300 Distribution 125

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South African state power utility Eskom has announced that it will be extending daily power cuts as the generation capacity shortage continues. Striking workers, maintenance delays, and aging power plants have forced Eskom to announce some of the worst power outages across the country in more than two years.

In a statement, Eskom said: “As the generation capacity shortages persist over the next few weeks, load-shedding will continue to be implemented.” Eskom warned that it will take a few weeks for the system to fully recover. It will implement Stage 6 level of power cuts from July 4. Eskom uses an eight-level system, and Stage 6 could involve up to 6-8 hours of power cut per day.

Eskom has a nominal generation capacity of just over 45 000 MW. Of this, 3384 MW is on planned maintenance, and another 18 319 MW is unavailable due to breakdowns. The supply situation worsened at the end of June as no agreement was reached on a wage deal with the workers, leading to them going on strike.