Eskom warns of more power cuts in worst year for outages

South Africa’s state-owned electricity utility resumed record power cuts and warned shortages may deepen because of its unreliable plants.

Eskom cut 2,000 megawatts from the grid after delays in returning some units to service. The utility said that power rationing, known locally as load shedding, may intensify to about 3,000 megawatts — so-called stage 3 — due to lower capacity and breakdowns. Supply could be constrained through the weekend.

The loss-making company’s poorly maintained power plants, which it’s struggled to fix as it looks to reduce costs, has already had the most intense power cuts of any year on record, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, a state research institution.

Eskom cut 1,382 gigawatt hours of power in 2020, the most since at least 2007, when the utility began struggling to meet demand. At 661 hours, it’s the second-longest duration of outages to date.

Chief Executive Officer Andre de Ruyter said Tuesday that by September demand for power is expected to return to levels seen before lockdown measures were introduced in March to control the coronavirus pandemic.

The utility is developing a business plan for a “greener” utility as the price of renewable technology declines, he said.

An urgent response is essential to address the gap between power supply and demand, the CSIR said in its report. Private developers are awaiting progress on a government plan to procure renewable power, in addition to other initiatives to increase supply.

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