Load-shedding may intensify to stage 3: Eskom

South Africa’s state-owned electricity utility resumed power cuts on Thursday and warned that shortages may deepen due to plant breakdowns.

Eskom will cut 2 000 megawatts from the grid after delays in returning two generating 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 offline plants.

“There is a high probability that stage 2 load shedding may be be escalated to stage 3 for the evening peak,” Eskom said. “This constrained supply situation may persist throughout the weekend.”

The debt-laden utility’s failure to provide sufficient electricity further clouds the outlook for Africa’s most-industrialised economy, already battered by the coronavirus pandemic and which the central bank and National Treasury forecast will contract by more than 7% this year. Eskom hasn’t had a stable generation system for more than a decade and is saddled with a debt pile of R480 billion.

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