South Africa cuts nationwide power supply after further grid losses

17 May 2021

Quantum Commodity Intelligence (London) - South African power provider Eskom has put in place a 48-hour nationwide power cut starting at 17.00 local time (15.00 GMT) Sunday, after the loss of ten generating units at seven of its power stations over the weekend.

The stage 2 'load shedding' was required following the total loss of 6,044 MW over a 24 hour period, bringing its total unplanned capacity loss to 16,118 MW on top of 4,171 MW of planned maintenance, said the company in a statement.

The country has a total power generation capacity of 58,095 MW according to government data meaning more than a quarter of grid capacity is now offline.

The public has been urged to reduce consumption in order to reduce the chances of a total blackout.

South Africa's growing power demands have placed ageing plants and infrastructure under stress, with older power stations and infrastructure being used to full capacity.

"The power system requires constant and prudent management of supply to meet demand but, today, Eskom faces the challenge of a constrained power system that will affect us until substantial new power capacity is available," said the company in a separate statement.

"Load shedding, or load reduction, is done countrywide as a controlled option to respond to unplanned events to protect the electricity power system from a total blackout."