What Would Happen if South Africa’s Electricity Grid Collapsed
- Mining, retail companies invest in generators, solar panels
- Government, Eskom say measures in place to safeguard system
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With South Africa enduring record power outages, the government has given assurances that the electricity grid won’t be allowed to collapse. Yet increasing numbers of businesses are preparing for that very eventuality.
Mining and telecommunications companies, retailers and private hospitals are spending millions of rand on batteries, solar panels and generators to safeguard their operations as the electricity supply from state utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. grows increasingly unreliable. More than half of its generation capacity has been regularly unavailable, leading to blackouts of up to 12 hours a day.