South Africa: Stage 8 Load Shedding 'A Possibility' Should Another Cold Spell Coincide With Failure of Units, Says Eskom

analysis

At dawn on Wednesday, South Africa was once again moved into Stage 6 power cuts. As winter bites, Stage 8 load shedding is 'still a possibility' -- albeit less likely, given the current performance of Eskom's fleet, the power utility says.

South Africans saw the resurgence of Stage 6 power cuts this week after a brutal cold front which led to icy conditions around the country caused the demand for power to "exceed what was anticipated" on Monday, Eskom said.

"The cold weather does drive up the demand for electricity but the cold weather was forecasted and the planning to meet the demand was in place. On Monday, 10 July, the demand for electricity did exceed the expected demand," the power utility said in response to questions from Daily Maverick on Wednesday.

"Unfortunately, the prolonged high demand and the failure of some generator units necessitated the implementation of higher stages of load shedding."

The country is currently experiencing Stage 4 and 6 power cuts. The higher stages of load shedding were implemented to balance the demand for electricity with supply, as well as for Eskom to "begin replenishing the depleted emergency reserves", it said.

In May, the power utility presented a worst-case scenario for the winter season and warned of possible Stage 7 and 8 outages between June and August.

But daily power cuts eased in the following weeks. This was largely because Eskom was doing less maintenance and because of...

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.