SOUTH Africa’s electricity crisis is costing the economy as much as R899 million per day, according to central bank estimates.
Rolling blackouts of about 6 to 12 hours a day, or so-called stage 3 and stage 6 outages, detract between R204 million and R899 million from the economy daily, the South African Reserve Bank said in an emailed response to questions on Monday.
Power cuts, known locally as load shedding, are needed to protect the grid from collapse when state-owned company Eskom’s ageing and poorly maintained and mostly coal-fed plants can’t meet demand.
The company, which produces almost all of South Africa’s electricity has imposed stage 6 cuts, the most severe yet, for 10 days so far this year, according to Bloomberg calculations.
The Reserve Bank lowered its economic growth forecast for this year to 0.3% from 1.1%, with Governor Lesetja Kganyago saying power disruptions will shave 2 percentage points
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