The uninterrupted power supply that has spurred optimism and growth in SA’s economy over the past 10 months could come to an end after Eskom issued an urgent load-shedding alert on Friday.
The utility warned of a “high risk of load-shedding at short notice” after several breakdowns that had affected its generation fleet over the past week.
Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said load-shedding up to stage 4 could be implemented this weekend as the utility closely monitored the status of its current emergency reserves after the disruptions.
“This is a potentially temporary setback. Load-shedding is largely behind us due to the structural improvements in our generation fleet,” said Marokane in a statement.
“However, over the past seven days, we have experienced several breakdowns that require extended repair times. This has necessitated the use of all our emergency reserves, which now need to be replenished.”
Load-shedding has been suspended for 311 days, marking a significant turnaround in the utility provider’s performance, largely thanks to its Generation Recovery Plan.
The warning for a return of planned power outages this weekend comes less than a day after SA’s energy regulator Nersa granted Eskom a tariff increase that was less than half what it had requested.
Business Day reported the increase left a R250bn shortfall in the power utility’s top line over the next three years.
Nersa granted average tariff rises of 12.74%, 5.36% and 6.19% for the coming three financial years. Eskom had asked for 36.15%, 11.81% and 9.1%.
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