SOUTH African power utility Eskom will ramp up outages after breakdowns at six generating units.
The company will increase power cuts to stage 5 — removing 5 000 megawatts from the national grid from 12 p.m. until 9 p.m. Tuesday, it said in a statement on Twitter. It will then implement so-called stage 6 load-shedding for the first time in two weeks, cutting 6 000 megawatts until 6 a.m. on Wednesday, before reverting to stage 5.
Parts of Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic hub, are being subjected to renewed water-supply cuts as ongoing electricity shortages disrupt pumping operations.
A power failure at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station, which supplies reservoirs in several high-lying areas of Johannesburg, resulted in critically low levels of supply, the municipality said on Twitter on Monday.
While repairs have been completed, it warned that time is needed to replenish the storage system.
Alternative sources of water have also been arranged for hospitals.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will address the nation in the coming week about steps the government will take to alleviate the nation’s energy crisis, a governing party official said.
State officials are discussing an emergency package of measures and the president may make an announcement before the cabinet begins a strategy meeting on February 1, African National Congress Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula told reporters Friday in Johannesburg.
“This is a crisis and we need emergency interventions,” Mbalula said of the rolling blackouts being implemented by Eskom that are resulting in electricity being cut for 10 hours or more a day. “An emergency package will be announced by government.”
Bloomberg
