On Sunday, South Africa's state-owned electricity public utility Eskom said stage two loadshedding will be implemented daily at 16:00 – 00:00 local time from Monday to Wednesday, an official statement reads, as the country continues to struggle to meet demand for power.
The statement explained that loadshedding will be implemented at night in order to have a “minimal impact on economy and population.”
“To the extent possible, Eskom will endeavor to limit loadshedding to night-time to have minimal impact on the economy and population,” the Eskom’s statement says. “The loadshedding will be used to replenish emergency generation reserves during the night to bolster generation capacity.”
The company said that loadshedding is used in cases of breakdowns and low generation capacity, explaining that 14,061 MW currently can’t be used due to breakdowns and another 5,467 MW is unavailable because of planned maintenance. In total, Eskom generates around 46,466 MW of capacity, official data indicates.
Stage two loadshedding means that power outrages can last for two hours at a time and can be implemented six times a day.
Last week, two generation units at the Kendal and Kusile coal-fired power stations in the nation's northeast were put in repair. However, seven generation units at the Kriel, Kendal, Komati, Lethabo, Majuba, and Matla coal-fired power stations, located in the east of the country, started to function again on Saturday.
According to the Eskom data, a little over 80% of South Africa's electricity is generated by coal-fired power stations, which tend to break down frequently.
Still, the current outage is an improvement over last month, when loadshedding stage six with longer duration and frequency happened.
Businesses and households are negatively affected by frequent blackouts and many are forced to use backup systems which require great expenses that might be unbearable for some.
Some experts argue that South Africa’s GDP suffers from the power outages, as hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold and platinum in the world’s largest platinum-producing country are estimated to be lost because of the blackouts.
The country’s government is trying to resolve the power issue. Aiming to tackle the energy crisis by August 1 this year, African National Energy Crisis Committee of Ministers, established by President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, developed a range of measures to cope with the problem.
The government planned to “improve the availability of existing supply,” attract private investments, increase capacity using “renewables, gas and battery storage,” induce “businesses and households to invest in rooftop solar,” and improve the electricity sector for long-term energy security.
Nevertheless, in September the country's energy grid experienced a collapse, when rolling blackouts reached stages four, five, and six.