South Africa: Battling shortfall of generating capacity, Eskom announces load shedding

The South African state-owned electricity utility will implement power cuts during evening peak on Monday and Tuesday, the CEO Andre de Ruter announced.

Eskom CEO said Monday the return to a typical winter pattern during the evening made it harder for the system to handle the demand. Between 5 pm and 10 pm, South African will therefore have to reduce the usage of electricity and to switch off all non-essential items.

Several power stations not working have contributed to the breakdown. Some were offline due to planned maintenance but the Southern African country experiences a 16,307MW loss in generating capacity due to breakdowns.

Consequently, load shedding will be increased to stage 4, a statement read, adding it would only be implemented as a last resort to protect the national grid.

Load shedding comprises 8 stages and the higher the load shedding stage the more frequently customers experience it. Stage 4 means power cuts could be increased to 4,000 MW.

If the impact will be less pronounced on business owners, the domestic consumers will bear the brunt.

Ongoing electricity disruption threatens to affect South Africa's economy. It is estimated that in 2020 load shedding cost South Africa's economy R500 million per stage, per day.