Eskom’s rolling blackouts are placing severe strain on mobile network operators trying to keep base stations up and running.
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South Africans looking for signs of an end to the latest round of power cuts were left disappointed after the minister responsible for power utility Eskom said he doesn’t have answers yet.
Even at a generous 20GW, the electricity available from Eskom’s coal fleet is barely 52% of the about 38.6GW nominal capacity. These numbers are horrifying.
Eskom has implemented a fifth straight day of controlled blackouts on Monday and will carry out more this week to prevent a total collapse of the electricity grid amid a shortage of capacity.
To reignite growth in a stagnating economy and lower one of the world’s highest unemployment rates, President Cyril Ramaphosa may need to take on the movement he helped create.
Eskom will implement stage-four load shedding until at least Tuesday as the effects of a tropical cyclone in Mozambique and problems at the company’s power plants continue to put severe pressure on the national power grid.
Eskom quicky escalated its rotational blackouts from stage two to stage four on Saturday, despite demand over weekends typically being lower than on weekdays when industry is consuming more electricity.
The latest plants built by South Africa’s financially strapped power utility experienced outages on Thursday that led to ongoing electricity cuts.
Eskom implemented stage-one rotational load shedding on Thursday, then progressed the blackouts to stage two later in the day. The state-owned utility blamed a “shortage of capacity” for the move.
As Eskom continues to warn consumers of rotational load shedding, deputy President David Mabuza has told MPs that the power utility has developed a detailed turnaround plan to address its challenges.