Eskom warns of possible load shedding on Monday night

Eskom has warned that load shedding could be on the cards for this evening as its power system is severely constrained after another two generation units tripped on Monday and the return of another one to service was delayed.

In a statement, the power utility says while Eskom teams are working hard to return as many of these generation units to service as possible, any further deterioration in the generation performance may necessitate the implementation of load shedding at short notice.

Spokesperson Sikhonathi Mantshantsha  says a unit each tripped at the Tutuka and Hendrina power stations tripped adding to earlier breakdowns at the Tutuka, Majuba, Komati, Kendal and Hendrina power stations.

In the video below Mantshantsha says breakdowns at power stations are unpredictable:



‘Difficult for the economy to grow’

Economist Azar Jammine has warned that Eskom’s continued failure to meet the demand for electricity will make it difficult for the economy to grow.

Eskom is struggling to service R440 billion of debt, which ran up due to surging salary, fuel, and debt-servicing costs, as well as mismanagement and corruption.

Jammine says if SA experiences stage 1 or 2 load shedding, the impact on the economy will be limited however from stage 3 the effect will be dire.

Last week, Eskom implemented stage 2 load shedding which it reduced to stage 1. This as the power utility battled to fix its generators. Jammine says the chance of the economy growing under such circumstances is very slim.

“Without a doubt, the successive acts of load shedding in the last two-three years has indeed weighed on business confidence. It has led to a revision of investment intentions by many companies which are concerned that the economy may not be able to achieve much higher growth in the face of this load shedding. We’re looking at an economy that’s already very depressed because of the lockdown we’ve had over the last five months.”

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Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)