If one is able to plan, anything is manageable. This week in Cape Town I heard from the city’s residents how they can set their clocks by the load-shedding schedules – that they happen exactly when stated and generally last no longer than two hours. Not so in the commercial heartland. The schedule for our suburb in Johannesburg said we’d be off from 10pm to 2am last night, so we felt comfortable with hosting a family birthday party. But the power actually went off at 6pm and returned at 10pm. Apart from wiping out the candle supply, this meant having a pleasant evening affected by the noisy drone of our neighbour’s generator. Come on City Power. You really can do better. – AH Â
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African power utility Eskom said on Saturday it was imposing “Stage 2” rolling blackouts until 2000 GMT due to pressure on the national grid and the need to build up diesel reserves and water in hydropower dams.
“State 2” means the utility is reducing nationwide demand by 2,000 MW, out of normal demand of around 30,000 MW.
Africa’s most advanced economy is facing months of power shortages as engineers step up maintenance to overhaul power plants that have been run too hard over the last few years to compensate for a lack of investment in new generation capacity.
Two huge new coal-fired power plants are under construction but have been hit by technical and labour-related delays.
The power shortages are imposing a major burden on the economy and are cited as one of the main reasons for growth forecasts of little more than 2 percent this year.
