Power outages a fact of life in SA

In desperate times, you need innovative thinking, or thinking outside of the box.

With news that Eskom is expected to continue to implement load shedding until April, new plans need to be formulated.

Load shedding puts unnecessary pressure on businesses, the economy and even people working from home – something President Cyril Ramaphosa urged the nation to embrace, if at all possible, in the face of rising Covid-19 infections.

Eskom’s suppliers and contractors have also not escaped the clutches of the pandemic, with many workers infected.

READ MORE: Load shedding a ‘high probability’ for the next three months – analyst

Due to a delay in the return to service of some generation units, Eskom has implemented Stage 2 load shedding nationwide.

However, the power utility said it was engaging with City Power to reduce the duration of load shedding in Johannesburg and the North West.

Late on Monday, it confirmed that some areas in Johannesburg and the North West would, from today, be moved to two-hour blocks of load shedding, rather than the four-hour blocks, plus up to 30 minutes of restoration time, implemented by City Power.

It could still mean that due to shorter load shedding periods, more frequent power outages could be implemented.

It’s a rather shallow celebration when you start cheering for the lesser of two evils, but it’s a start.

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