Eskom Latest: Cuts Ramp Up, Restoring Pylons May Take Five Days
(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s state-owned electricity provider, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., has had to implement the worst rolling blackouts since Feb. 26 after generating units at six power stations were unable to contribute to meeting demand.
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Eskom will continue to implement so-called stage 6 loadshedding until 5am on Thursday, then reducing to 5,000 megawatts until 4 p.m. before returning to 6,000-megawatt blackouts, with this pattern to continue indefinitely, it said on Twitter. The utility’s previous plan was to keep power cuts to 5,000 megawatts.
South Africa has endured 101 days of rotational blackouts this year and 15 consecutive months of outages, according to Bloomberg calculations. Eskom is struggling to meet demand with its aging coal-fired power plants, which regularly break down.
Chart Shows Power Cuts Have Intensified in Past Five Years (April 12, 5:08 p.m.)
Restoring Power Pylons in Capital May Take Five Days (April 12, 8 a.m.)
It may take as long as five days to repair and install new power pylons that supply parts of South Africa’s capital, Beeld reported, citing Eskom’s acting spokeswoman, Daphne Mokwena.
Seven high-tension electricity towers in the northeast of Tshwane municipality, which includes the capital, Pretoria, collapsed at the weekend, cutting power supplies to the area. That included Silverton, where Ford Motor Co. has a 720-vehicle-a-day assembly plant. The factory has already lost a full day of production, Fin24 reported, citing Neale Hill, president of Ford Africa.
Theft and vandalism often hamper power supply in South Africa as criminals target electricity infrastructure.
Above-Inflation Demands for Wage Hikes (April 11, 9:59 a.m.)
The Solidarity labor union is demanding inflation-beating pay increases for its members who work at Eskom.
Solidarity wants a raise of the average inflation rate plus 3 percentage points for all workers, it said in an emailed copy of demands seen by Bloomberg. The union’s mandate is to negotiate a multi-year agreement. Average consumer-price growth in South Africa was 6.9% last year.
Eskom agreed to a 7% wage increase for workers last year after illegal protests, in which roads to power plants were blocked, cars were set on fire and gasoline bombs were thrown at company managers’ homes.
Electricity Minister Calls for More State Funding (April 6, 4 p.m.)
South Africa’s electricity minister called for more state funding and exemptions on emissions limits at coal-fired power plants to help ease the nation’s energy crisis.
The measures are among a raft of proposals Kgosientsho Ramokgopa will submit to the cabinet this month. Eskom doesn’t have the money to invest in its capital equipment, and so it will have to seek funding elsewhere, he told reporters Thursday in Pretoria.
--With assistance from Rene Vollgraaff and Simbarashe Gumbo.
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