- South Africans to experience extensive load shedding until next year.
- Significant repairs and capital investment projects to reduce generation capacity.
South Africans are in for a dark festive season. Eskom has announced that extensive load shedding will continue for the next six to 12 months as major repairs and capital investment projects are set to reduce already constrained generation capacity.
Eskom’s group chief operating officer, Jan Oberholzer, reported that “Due to the vulnerability and unpredictability of the power system, coupled with the major capital projects, maintenance and major repairs to be executed starting during the next few months, the risk of continued load shedding remains quite high.”
He added that a unit at Koeberg power station would undergo maintenance and refuelling from 8 December until June next year.
In a statement, the power utility said these plans would remove 2,300MW of generation capacity from the ailing power grid and further increase the implementation of rolling blackouts.
Eskom has cautioned the public to anticipate the increased risk of load shedding until these problems are resolved.