Record Outages Leave South Africa Struggling for Energy Fix
- Electricity cuts have reached unprecedented levels this year
- Greater urgency needed to tackle power crisis, president says
The most severe blackouts in South Africa’s history have left the government struggling for ways to mitigate their impact on businesses and livelihoods, with efforts to buy more power from private producers and neighboring countries.
Africa’s most industrialized nation is facing more than four hours of electricity cuts at a stretch because state-owned utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. can’t produce enough power from its old and poorly maintained plants to meet demand. Although the country has faced rolling blackouts since 2008, a succession of action plans have failed to provide lasting solutions. The government’s latest pledge to intervene comes after 6,000 megawatts of capacity was cut from the national grid over the weekend as power stations malfunctioned.