The state-owned power company last month introduced stage 6 loadshedding, which has gradually been dropped to stage 2 at present.
CAPE TOWN – Eskom reiterated the importance of South Africa investing in more energy generation capacity to rid the country of load shedding.
According to the power utility, power outages would remain until the state secured an additional 4,000-6,000 megawatts.
This comes as the country’s households and businesses have had to brave recurrent bouts of power cuts for the third consecutive week with alternating stages.
Eskom implemented Stage 6 load shedding last month – which has since been gradually dropped to Stage 2.
Moreover, Stage 1 load shedding is scheduled for the coming weekend.
South Africans have been subjected to power outages since 2007.
Speaking on Radio 702, the power utility’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha emphasised that load shedding would remain a reality, as long as there’s insufficient energy capacity.
“We cannot put a time frame, load shedding is here until we have 4,000-6,000 megawatts of capacity to connect to the system.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to announce a plan that will remedy Eskom’s power generation struggles.
Mantshantsha stressed that expanding energy infrastructure was the only way to resolve the issue.
“This country needs infrastructure to generate electricity, it does not need policies. It needs infrastructure on the ground and needs people to build infrastructure on the ground as much as they can,” he said.
Source: Eyewitness News
Link: https://ewn.co.za/2022/07/19/eskom-load-shedding-not-going-anywhere-until-we-have-4-000-6-000-mw-of-capacity
