Eskom announces load shedding exercise in South Africa

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 07:58 am

The state-owned power utility company, Eskom announced major power cuts in South Africa. This is not the first time that country will be facing this issue, last month as well there was a 24 hour power cut as the company’s transformers and machines were busted due to overhead of power.

This time company announced that they will begin rationing electricity to consumers to cope with increasing demand as the cold southern winter begins. In a statement, Eskom said the loading shedding exercise will be implemented from 14:00 to 22:00 local time.

Though it is still unclear that how long or often this problem will pertain but surely it is evident that the company is facing major technical problems.

These regular power cuts are also a result of poor performance by Eskom’s ageing and poorly maintained power plants.

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These plants are reportedly South Africa’s biggest polluter and to bring them back in shape, it is also said that they will be cutting expenses from other resources and blocks of the organization.

Lagging the energy transition despite being the major producer of energy, Eskom is unable to run its power stations effectively. As Africa’s leading industrialized country and a signatory to the Paris Climate Agreement, the Southern Africa nation generates over 80 per cent of electricity from coal, thus it results in polluting the environment by a huge proportion.

At a virtual meeting of the African Heads of State Committee on Climate Change, the officials discussed and prepared a framework for Africa’s participation in COP26. President Cyril Ramaphosa also mentioned that it is unrealistic to expect to hold the same timeframes as developed countries for transitioning our economies and divesting from fossil fuels. Africa will surely catch up and take the necessary precautions but it will be a gradual process.