South Africa has been experiencing rolling blackouts of up to six hours a day during a bitterly cold winter due to an unreliable power supply in the country. The state-run power company Eskom has been experiencing poor management and corruption which has caused South Africa to experience power cuts for many years, but this will potentially be the worst yet.
Last year, Eskom shed 2,521 gigawatt hours of electricity. This year, Eskom has already shed 2,286 gigawatt hours and its only July. This shedding is to prevent a total grid collapse and Eskom cuts power to different parts of the country at a time. Eskom entered state six for the first time since December 2019, it had to cut 6,000 megawatt hours to prevent a nationwide blackout. Each stage of shedding means 1,000 megawatt hours must be cut. Eskom has been notifying people when the power will go out in their area, however it has not always adhered exactly to its schedule. The current power cuts have been exacerbated by Eskom workers who went on strike last week. A pay deal has been reached to end the strike, however a backlog of maintenance work means the power cuts won’t end immediately.
Read more: No power for up to six hours in South Africa electricity crisis
