South Africa in darkness as Eskom’s troubles intensify

SOUTH AFRICA - Report 13 Feb 2019 by Iraj Abedian

Load shedding is back once again, and this time, the electricity cuts by Eskom that have long plagued South Africa have intensified. Load shedding is implemented by Eskom as a last resort measure when demand for electricity outstrips power generation by the entity. This is done in order to avert a total collapse of the grid and a nation-wide electricity blackout. Load shedding became common in 2008, and once again in 2014-15, when Eskom implemented months of these electricity cuts.

It was this past Sunday that Eskom announced that it would be implementing electricity cuts since it last did so in early December 2018. Eskom announced that a “Stage 2” load shedding called for 2000MW to be rotationally “load shed” nationally at any given moment. It said that “load shedding is conducted rotationally as a measure of last resort to protect the power system from a total collapse or blackout.” On Monday, however, this escalated to “Stage 4” load shedding following the loss of seven additional generating units, with the resultant 4,000MW being cut from the national grid. The last time this much power was cut from the national grid was during 2014-15. Eskom’s struggles with severe maintenance issues caused the November-December 2018 load shedding.

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