Return of stage 2 load-shedding costs SA economy R2bn a day
The reason for the utility’s desperate plan is due to construction faults in new power stations, says expert.
Picture: iStock
The impact of Eskom’s latest stage 2 load shedding of 2,000MW is set to cost South Africa’s productive economy R2 billion in 13 hours daily, energy analyst Chris Yelland has warned.
The power utility yesterday announced its plans to implement load shedding – the first since December – due to what it said was capacity shortage, which required a need to replenish and preserve emergency water and diesel.
“Stage 2 calls for 2,000MW to be rotationally load shedded nationally at a given period,” said Eskom.
“Load shedding is conducted rotationally as a measure of last resort to protect the power system from a total collapse or blackout.”
It said the load-shedding period would run from 1pm to 10pm – affecting residential and business power users.
Yelland said there was “a thin line between load shedding and no load shedding”.
“Sometimes we get lured into a false sense of security,” he said.
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