South Africa: Winter will be “difficult”, according to the public electricity company

South Africa's winter will be difficult with prolonged power outages, power utility Eskom has warned, due to failing coal-fired plants and rising demand. However, a total blackout is unlikely but load shedding could intensify.

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South Africans, who officially enter winter on June 21, are going to be hard-pressed for the next few months, warned state-owned power company Eskom on Thursday, which has already been imposing 12-hour-a-day power cuts for months.

“We’re going to have a tough winter,” particularly “tough,” acknowledged Calib Cassim, the company’s acting CEO, at a press conference in Johannesburg. Eskom, which supplies the vast majority of the country’s electricity, is burdened by a fleet of old and failing coal-fired power plants. The company is not able to supply the level of needs and the arrival of cold weather will increase demand and therefore the extent of load shedding, to avoid a collapse of the network. A “total blackout is unlikely”, however, tried to reassure Mr. Cassim.

But “it’s going to be a very, very tight winter in terms of supply and demand,” added Segomoco Scheppers, head of transmission at Eskom. “Winter outlook scenarios show that load shedding could intensify.” The coal-fired power plants that supply 80% of the electricity in Africa’s most industrialized country are in a state of agony: too old, poorly maintained, their budgets diverted by corruption, they are constantly breaking down. The country has not had a day without a blackout since the Christmas period, in the middle of the austral summer.

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