South Africa’s Eskom To Repeat Worst-Ever Power Cuts

South African state utility Eskom said on Tuesday that it would implement the country’s worst-ever power cuts lasting at least six hours a day, after 10 generation units went offline overnight and as a strike disrupted its operations.

The so-called “Stage 6” power cuts have only been implemented once before in Africa’s most industrialised nation, where economic growth has been constrained for more than a decade by Eskom’s outages.

The so-called “Stage 6” electricity cuts Eskom is currently facing have only been implemented once before in its history, it said.ageing coal-fired power station fleet is highly prone to faults, and its ability to return units to service has been constrained by labour protests.

Eskom has been implementing Stage 4 power cuts requiring up to 4,000 megawatts (MW) to be shed from the national grid since late last week. Stage 6 outages would require up to 6,000 MW to be shed, and were only implemented once before, in December 2019.

The rand, which had been trading stronger against the dollar in early trade, weakened on the warning from Eskom.

South African state power utility Eskom sees an opportunity to emerge from years of crisis by shifting from coal-fired power generation towards natural gas and renewables, its chief executive told Reuters.

Eskom has implemented power cuts for more than a decade in Africa’s most industrialised nation that have held back economic growth and deterred investment. It has roughly 400 billion rand ($25 billion) of debt that it services through regular government bailouts.

The South African economy has been experiencing frequent bouts of load shedding (the local term for rolling blackouts) which has negatively impacted local industry and economic growth.

In South Africa, approximately 85 percent or 42,000 MW, of the nation’s electricity is generated via coal-fired power stations. Despite environmental concerns, coal will continue to provide the majority of South Africa’s power for the next decade,

Eskom, the vertically integrated, state-owned power company, generates approximately 95 percent of electricity used in South Africa, as well as a substantial share of the electricity generated on the African continent. It sells to Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, eSwatini Zimbabwe. South Africa has an electrification rate that is amongst the highest on the continent,