Eskom: severe power cuts until Wednesday
Technical difficulties mean the utility will review its undertaking to end load shedding by April
SA can expect severe power cuts until Wednesday as none of the myriad technical problems confronting Eskom has an immediate fix, the state-owned power utility said on Sunday. The prospect that load shedding will be ended by April — an undertaking made previously by Eskom and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan — also significantly diminished over the weekend as the scale of the problems became known. Eskom intensified power cuts over the past two days and took the unprecedented step of imposing load shedding through Saturday night as it grappled with unexpected boiler tube leaks at several coal-fired power stations, ongoing diesel shortages and the sudden loss of electricity imports from Mozambique. These fresh challenges mean Eskom will be reviewing the outlook to end load shedding by April, acting group executive for generation Andrew Etzinger told Business Day on Sunday. Years of mismanagement have left the power utility, which supplies more than 95% of SA’s electricity, g...
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