South Africa’s Eskom Resumes Power Cuts as New CEO Starts
- Eskom to cut 2,000 megawatts from grid until 5 a.m. on Monday
- Renewed cuts come just as new CEO De Ruyter starts at utility
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South African power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., which generates about 95% of the country’s electricity, extended power cuts that started on Jan. 4 into a second day after a conveyor belt failure at its Medupi plant -- just as Andre de Ruyter officially takes over as head of the cash-strapped company.
Eskom initially extended stage 2 load-shedding, the local term for scheduled blackouts, through Monday at 5 a.m., the utility said Sunday in an emailed statement. That means the company is removing 2,000 megawatts from the national grid. In a later statement it said it would end power cuts earlier than anticipated at 11 p.m. and doesn’t expect outages tomorrow.