Load-shedding pain as Eskom buckles

JUST as a cold front was moving across South Africa and plunging most of the country into a cold snap, Eskom announced that added demand, and the breakdown of generation units at its power station had forced it to implement Stage 2 load shedding.

The power utility indicated that breakdowns at its power stations meant that 14 560 Megawatts of capacity would be unavailable from the power grid while an additional 2 300Mw was unavailable due to scheduled maintenance.

“The generation supply constraints will persist throughout the high winter demand period, which increases the likelihood of load shedding,” read the statement from the parastatal announcing the latest round of load shedding which kicked off at 4pm yesterday. Consumers have been encouraged to reduce their electricity consumption to ease the strain on the country’s power grid.