Energy expert Ted Blom says President Cyril Ramaphosa‘s assurance that electricity supply in the country will soon be back to normal will not end the inconvenience and disruptions that Eskom‘s ongoing blackouts are causing.
The power utility says it will continue cutting power until Wednesday as it struggles with capacity shortages.
Eskom says it has suffered repeated faults at its coal-fired power station fleet, low water levels at hydro-power plants and diesel shortages.
The situation worsened on Saturday after Eskom lost its usual electricity imports from the Cahora Bassa hydro-electric system in Mozambique, which was hit by a powerful cyclone last week.
“Eskom was heading this way for a long time now. It came to light that Medupi and Kusile were grossly underperforming. Eskom never thought this day would arrive now on weekend the after hour demand dropped 30 kilowatt to 22 gigawatts. There is something grossly wrong for the President to say it is a temporary problem. He’s got it wrong.”
