South Africa’s debt-laden power utility company, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, released a statement on Monday, announcing its plans to launch a power purchase program to bolster its power generation capacity. Eskom resumed rolling blackouts last month, rationing electricity for up to 7 hours of blackout a day, after its several of its facilities lost some generation capacity.
As of Sunday, Eskom was reported to have 57 broken down or under maintenance units – more than 50% of its total capacity. The state enterprise is also faced with labor-related challenges following the refusal of wage increase offer by Eskom unions.
The announced actions to ensure the provision of reliable electricity supply to the country include the procurement of 1000 megawatts from independent power producers and industrial co-generators. An additional 200 megawatts will be procured from the Southern African Power Pool (a cooperation of the national electricity companies in Southern Africa). The state-owned company has also started addressing maintenance issues and shortage of Human Resources by recruiting of experts and experienced engineers who will conduct employee trainings.
According to a Tweet by Eskom’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha, 6770 megawatts were shed on Monday, against South Africa’s power demand of 31403 megawatts. Eskom current power generation capacity was reported to be standing at 25 586 megawatts per day.
The load shedding crisis has affected households and businesses, with disastrous implications on the South African economy. According to the Department of Public Enterprises, load shedding is being implemented as a last resort in lieu of shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns.
All efforts are directed towards returning megawatts lost due to unplanned breakdowns and outages”, Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan said on Monday.
Meanwhile, South Africans are being urged to prepare for the unthinkable national grid collapse.
Apart from investing in back-up power sources such as solar, households are being encouraged to keep battery banks, emergency lights, radios, and phones fully charged during the few hours of electricity. As well as, stock up on drinking water, LP gas, non perishable foods, and fuel for generators.
