A dark Christmas is the least of Eskom and SA’s worries

Experts warn that load shedding will prevent South Africa from becoming part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and instead cripple the economy.

Eskom took to Twitter yesterday to warn the public before implementing stage 2 load shedding. This comes after the utility announced the loss of additional units on Thursday night.

The power cuts, which were scheduled for 9am until 11pm, allow for up to 2000 megawatts of the national load to be shed, twice as severe as stage 1.

Eskom implemented stage 1 load shedding on Thursday. It also warned that the country will likely see more planned outages for the remainder of this year.

Political expert Daniel Silke said the continued power cuts were predicted to continue for a number of years and eventually create severe constraints to the local industries.

Silke said the instability of the power grid was detrimental to the economy as it didn’t allow for industries to grow and expand. This decreased their chances in being able to compete in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“Investors are looking for stability and this situation could dampen the investments coming into the country,” he said. “South Africa has to position itself for industries in the future and one of the ways we can do that is to have stability where power supplies are concerned.”

Ahead of the closing date of multiyear price determination yesterday, Silke also said he did not believe Eskom was trying hard to find ways to extract more money from the public. He said the utility was in a real economic crisis and crippled under extensive debts, while its aging plants lacked in maintenance due to lack of funds.

Energy expert Chris Yelland agreed with Silke, saying Eskom’s management team were at one stage of integrity and would never think to use malicious methods to suck money out of the public.

Yelland said problems within the power grid, especially concerning the decline in plant generation performance and the maintenance of the ageing facilities, were much deeper than a quick fix could remedy and that it could take more money and years to fix.

– jenniffero@citizen.co.za

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