South Africa’s beleaguered power utility will extend 6,000 megawatt of power cuts for the foreseeable future as it struggles to revive its aging coal-fired power plants.
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. earlier on Sunday began what it calls Stage-6 power cuts after generation units tripped at the Kusile and Kriel power stations. That’s sufficient energy to supply almost 4 million South African homes. The utility started withdrawing 6,000 megawatts from the grid in June. That was the first time since 2019.
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The ongoing blackouts -- the worst year on record -- were a major contributor to the economy’s 0.7% contraction in the second quarter. Severe outages also pose a safety risk to workers in deep-level mines and hurts manufacturing across Africa’s most-industrialized nation. Eskom has had to resort to what’s locally known as load shedding for eight straight months.